2009-08-18
To advocate sustainable development of corporations and social responsibility in the business circle and fulfill the social responsibility of corporate citizenship, the first Annual Meeting of Chinese Corporate Social Responsibility was held in Chengdu on August 14th. Sponsored by Chengdu Municipal government and Nanfang Media Group, attendees were over 200 corporations from all over China including Top 500 international enterprises Mal-mart, BMW, IBM, Intel, as well as famous Chinese enterprises such as Bank of China, Baosteel Group, Tongwei Group, and Huaxia Bank.
Taking “Chengdu, Sustainable Development; Corporation, Sustainable Responsibility” as its theme, the first annual meeting emphasized the positive impact of corporate social responsibility on sustainable development of Chengdu’s social economy. The meeting set up Responsibility Leader Award to commend the outstanding contributions by enterprises. Mr. Liu Hanyuan, Standing Committee member of the CPPCC, Board Chairman of Tongwei Group, was invited to the meeting, and received the award for his outstanding performance in the area of corporate social responsibility as well as relief work for the 2008 earthquake.
Mr. Liu received exclusive interview by sina.com after the awarding ceremony. He pointed out, “corporate social responsibility” involves many aspects such as economy, culture, education, environment and charitable undertakings, and its content gets richer and deeper in recent years, especially after the 2008 Earthquake. Furthermore, Mr. Liu expressed his unique opinion about corporate responsibility: as profit- making business organizations, corporations can form good brand awareness, receive high recognition and support by integrating profit maximization and social return maximization, taking corporate long-term vision as part of its corporate social responsibility, and relating its business reputation, value, culture, products with strong social responsibility. This not only meets social demands, but also helps promote the corporate development. “As an economic organization, it is taking its core social responsibility by paying taxes, offering jobs, taking care of employee benefits, ensuring product quality, protecting the environment, and doing best service for its customers.”
On the issue of overrating corporate charitable responsibility over its basic responsibilities including economic responsibility, Mr. Liu further pointed out, donation and production expansion are two forms that share the same nature. Both aim at contributing to the society by creating more social wealth and value. As the scale of an enterprise extends, its individual attribute will be shrinking while its social attribute will grow. A big enterprise is not doing business for itself, but to a large extent, to the country and society.
Tongwei believes the key to its continuing rise is its strong sense of responsibility. It has been taking its due responsibility over the past 30 years in the areas of economy, culture, education, environment as well as public welfare. Tongwei will keep making every effort to continue a healthy growth in its two core business – agriculture and new energy side by side with its social responsibility.