Sustainable development has today become an urgent requirement and a global trend. Being fully aware of this, Imexpharm Corporation has always focused on sustainable development in all activities in the past years, thus not only enabling it to improve business performance and increase its own sustainable value, but also creating positive impacts on the environment, community development and social security. The following conversation with Mr. Nguyen Quoc Dinh, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Imexpharm Corporation, will elucidate this effort. Thanh Tung reports.
How have you aligned and integrated sustainable development into business in the past time?
Adopting the quality-based development strategy “Top quality - European standards”, in recent years, Imexpharm has always integrated sustainability in its business activities. Specifically, we have established the Sustainable Development Committee, which consists of members of the Board of Directors and the Board of Management and is chaired by the Chairman of the Board of Directors.
Facing the risk of energy shortage, groundwater depletion and poor living environment sanitation, Imexpharm has set norms for economical use of energy and water and adopted solutions for energy saving and use of solar electricity at the Head Office. We have also introduced norms for damaged products and loss in production to trim down product costs; reduced plastic waste and plastic bottles used for meetings and manufacturing activity; proactively applied advanced manufacturing standards (EU-GMP), used cutting-edge technology, high-quality raw materials to ensure safety for users, protect workers' health, protect the environment, and raise the level of Vietnam's pharmaceutical industry.
At the same time, we have ensured competitive salaries and good benefits for employees through the employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) program, built a friendly working environment, and united employees towards profound human values. We have also built social responsibility programs that focus on two main areas: Education development and increased access to primary healthcare for people. With this program, Imexpharm puts a premium on building and sponsoring study encouragement funds for young people to develop human resources - the future property of the locality and the nation. We have also developed and maintained free medical check-ups and medicines for people in remote areas where access to medical services is limited. Through these social responsibility programs, we have helped increase career opportunities, enhanced the image of a friendly brand, upgraded our professional activity and boosted community connectivity.
Why have you decided to pursue sustainable development goals? Up to now, what benefits has the sustainable development strategy produced for Imexpharm in particular and the community and the country in general?
We have pursued sustainable development goals for more than 20 years. Driven by the ambition of investing in product quality, we worked with multinational pharmaceutical corporations to build the first ASEAN-GMP factory in Vietnam. In this way, we could approach the developed European pharmaceutical industry. Hence, we formed sustainability mindset quite early, and sustainability has become our only path: “Commitment from the beginning”.
To date, this thinking and strategy has enabled Imexpharm in particular and the community and the society as a whole to do everything responsibly. For example, right from the outset, when building Binh Duong High-tech Betalactam Factory (completed in 2009), the goal at that time was only meeting WHO-GMP, but we thought of EU-GMP standards during the course of construction. So, in 2014, we easily upgraded this factory to EU-GMP standards, which very few WHO-GMP factories in Vietnam can do.
In addition, investing in advanced technological standards for pharmaceutical production has enabled Vietnam to reduce its dependence on imported medicines and, at the same time, and produce less impact on the environment. Currently, our products can compete on par with generic drugs manufactured by European and American corporations.
In 2018, Imexpharm compiled the Sustainability Report themed “Starting life”. Through this report, what message did Imexpharm want to convey?
Through the Sustainability Report 2018 themed “Starting Life”, we want to convey a message of sea and ocean protection to the community. We need to understand how human life depends on the sea and the ocean to stop all actions that destroy the marine environment, otherwise, dangers will happen to ourselves.
Could you please describe your sustainable development strategy in the coming time? What are main objectives of this strategy?
Imexpharm’s sustainable development strategy from now till 2022 will focus on “Creating sustainable values for stakeholders”, in which we concentrate on better engagement with stakeholders to consult them on development strategies. On the other hand, we will complete investment in EU-GMP standard factories, develop high-class products. This effort will boost the company’s business growth, bring a good dividend policy for shareholders and investors, improve income and benefits for employees, and better fulfill environmental protection and community development goals.
In addition, Imexpharm will foster connectivity with such parties as GRI Vietnam to make the 2019 Sustainability Report according to GRI standards. We will also actively strengthen cooperation with other stakeholders to improve our sustainability programs.
Thank you very much!
Vietnamese
