A non-profit center backed by Swedish government and institutions was launched in Beijing Wednesday in the hope of promoting corporations to better protect child rights and undertake social responsibilities.

The Center for Child Rights and Corporate Social Responsibility (CCR CSR) wanted to provide a platform as well as advisory services to Chinese corporations that are committed to child rights protection in their social responsibility activities, its executive director Britta Ostrom said at the opening ceremony.

"Corporations can contribute to sustainable change for children when they bring child rights issues into corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies," Ostrom said.

"I am certain our operations will benefit children in China and will strengthen the role of business in society as expressed in the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the two countries," Ostrom said. China and Sweden signed an MOU on CSR in 2008.

The center was mainly sponsored and technically supported by the Save the Children Sweden (SCS), a Stockholm-based non-governmental child rights organization founded in 1919.

The center in China could serve as "a pioneer", and more centers would be set up in other countries in the future, said Elisabeth Dahlin, SCS Secretary General, who also attended the ceremony.