Centrally-administered state-owned enterprises (SOEs), the
backbone of China's national economy, have been urged to play a
leading role in fulfilling social responsibilities and securing
sustainable development.
Though not compulsory, some of the country's 152 SOEs directly
under the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration
Commission (SASAC) will start this year to release regular reports
for stake holders to evaluate their fulfillment of social
duties.
SASAC, the watchdog of state-owned assets, has written the move
into its first directive of the year, which defines social
responsibility in a broad sense to cover environmental protection,
energy and resources conservation, securing production safety,
protecting the rights of employees and consumers, maintaining
market order, upholding business ethics and philanthropy, repaying
investors and creating job opportunities.
But the directive did not detail the frequency of the releases
or how many SOEs would release regular reports this year.
Corporate Social Responsibility has evolved into a catchphrase
in the global business community after the United Nations initiated
the Global Compact in 2000, emphasizing the role of business in the
areas of human rights, labor, the environment and
anti-corruption.
Eleven centrally-administered SOEs including Baosteel, China
Ocean Shipping (Group) Company and China Aluminum, have voluntarily
joined multinationals to release reports on social responsibility
and sustainable development.
Sources with the SASAC noted that the growing consciousness of
social responsibility within China coincided with global trends and
had profound political connotations.
China's centrally-administered SOEs, though still limited in
strength and core competitiveness when compared with multinationals
and first-class international companies, were the backbone of
China's state-owned economy and an ultimate embodiment of
government ownership for the public good, they say.
After nearly three decades of economic reforms and opening-up,
the Chinese economy has turned from a monolithic state and
collective-owned economy into a variety of ownerships with the
state-owned enterprises at the core.
Private firms have experienced a rapid takeoff but remain in the
fledging stage, hiring 69.3 million employees by last July, up 518
percent on the previous year, and possessing a combined registered
capital of 8.3 trillion yuan (about 1.1 trillion U.S. dollars).
Shortly after the State Grid released its sustainable
development report last year, Yili Group, a private dairy maker,
came up with its own report on social responsibility.
In a lengthy explanation on the directive posted on its official
website, the SASAC said that SOEs must reflect the "State Will" to
seriously implement the scientific development outlook proposed by
the governing Communist Party of China for the "dominant and
irreplaceable" roles they have played in securing national economic
lifelines.
Since the establishment of the SASAC in 2003, these companies
had registered an average annual rise of one trillion yuan in sales
revenue by 2006. Their annual profits and taxation grew by 100
billion yuan.
Kudos should go to Sinopec and PetroChina who pledged to
increase output and imports to ease domestic fuel shortages despite
the refined oil products being far cheaper than imports, said the
statement.
An earlier report said 14 central SOEs were organized by the
Chinese government to offer about 1,000 jobs to new graduates by
the end of 2008, particularly those from low-income families.
Calling the centrally-administered SOEs the "bellweathers" in
leading local companies into global cooperation, the SASAC said a
responsible image and the capability to act responsibly will
sharpen the cutting edge of domestic companies.
The directive also urged SOEs to integrate the sense of social
responsibility into their corporate culture and governance, open
more dialogues with global peers and participate in the
constitution of international standards on business
responsibilities.
But "a continuously rising profitability" was still underscored
as a necessity for SOEs to better fulfill their social
responsibilities.
(Xinhua News Agency January 9, 2008)
