The awarding ceremony of the Corporate Social Responsibility Award 2012 (CSR Award) is set to take place in Hanoi on March 30, 2013. The event aims to honour and praise enterprises integrating corporate social responsibility (CSR) into their operations and attaining excellent achievements in labour and environment from 2010 to 2012.
Vietnam Business Forum had an interview with Dr Doan Duy Khuong, Vice President of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), Co-chair of the Vietnam Business Council for the Sustainable Development (VBCSD), and Member of the Steering Committee on CSR Award 2012. Thu Ha reports.
The CSR Award 2012 takes place as the Vietnamese economy and businesses are still facing difficulty. How do you assess enterprises’ interests in CSR in general and this year’s CSR Awards in particular?
This is the fifth year VCCI hosts this annual award with the aim of raising awareness of enterprises, community and society in CSR roles and benefits in the sustainable development of enterprises, community and society. This is also an opportunity for businesses to share experience and cooperate in CSR with the business community, State agencies and social organisations. In addition, the award encourages and supports Vietnamese enterprises to cooperate in CSR with international businesses and forums to acquire experience to achieve sustainable development.
Despite taking place amidst economic difficulty, CSR Award 2012 has received the passionate interest and enthusiastic response of the domestic and international business communities. The organisers have received a lot of applications from enterprises. In times of crisis, a number of companies will probably have to leave the market but many newcomers will fill in the room. Difficulty and challenge demand enterprises to make every effort to withstand and move forward. The fiercer the business environment is, the greater effort enterprises have to take to strengthen and maintain their competitiveness. For this reason, the award not only catches the interest of enterprises but also has their enthusiastic participation.
Moreover, the awarding in the current context of economic difficulty presents an encouragement for businesses to keep the faith and live through hardships. This situation also proves the resilience of enterprises and their capability to reach sustainable development.
What are the criteria for this year?
This year, the judging criteria are the same as in previous years, including labour and environment. The general criteria remain enterprises’ efforts to integrate CSR as an inseparable part of their production and business strategies which is expressed in their care for the environment, labour, community participation and community development, staff education and training, business honesty, customer relations, corporate governance, personal legal rights of workers.
Specific environmental criteria include Compliance with the laws on environment, prevention and remedying of pollution, environmental protection; reasonable use of natural resources, harmonious combination of economic growth and environmental protection, and social responsibility to environment.
Labour criteria feature complying with labour laws; adopting policies to improve working conditions; having social communication and dialogue tools for the construction of harmonious labour relations; and having human resources development policies.
However, this year, the judging panel will take into account the new context, and add new factors into scoring sheets to encourage companies.
What are the benefits for companies vying for this award?
In fact, in the context of regional and global economic integration, fulfilling requirements of exercising good corporate social responsibility towards the sustainable development is a considerable challenge for developing countries like Vietnam because it benefits both businesses and the society. This work is just started in Vietnamese businesses but it but will be a long-term one. Right now, winning the award will help enhance their reputation to customers, facilitate their competitiveness improvement and increase successful international integration.
In the long term, with good CSR exercising, businesses will contribute to the sustainable development of the country which in turn ensures the long-term sustainable development of businesses. CSR Award 2012 will be a driving force for enterprises to achieve sustainable development.
However, businesses must be aware that doing good CSR is not to win awards or any recognition but for their long-term development and sustainable growth and for the development of surrounding community.
With the award, the organisers also want to raise awareness of enterprises about CSR roles and benefits and encourage them to exercise good social responsibility and share effective experiences and solutions in labour management, working condition improvement, worker health protection, environmental protection, and community development.
Mr Nguyen Quang Vinh, Director of Office for Business Sustainable Development and Representative of the Organising Board
Carrying out CSR is very important for every business in any circumstances. CSR is integrated into the business strategy of enterprises and becomes a condition for them to develop, enhance and maintain competitive advantages. Before concerns and demands of consumers, especially non-governmental organisations, enterprises ignoring corporate social responsibility can no longer have market access opportunities. The more social responsibility they have, the more profitability they have, and vice versa.
CSR does not depend on the scale but it lies in the awareness of each business. CSR should not be done in the surface and regarded as a tool to polish and advertise brand name but it must be a real responsibility.
Taking part in the network and promoting CSR activities, enterprises contribute to the economic, cultural and social development of the country on the one hand and help improve the reputation, brand value and corporate image in the eyes of consumers, suppliers, distributors and investors, as well as motivate employees and increasing labour productivity on the other.
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