Project description

Title: Corporate Social Responsibility
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Country: China
Lead executing agency: Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM)
Overall term: 2007 to 2012

Context

While China’s economic growth over the past three decades has undeniably had positive impacts on the country’s development, it has also created significant social and environmental challenges. It is clear that enterprises are intrinsically linked to China’s economic, environmental and social conditions, and have a crucial role to play in finding a solution to such challenges. Furthermore, companies, which strategically incorporate environmental and social concerns into a framework of responsible business practices not only contribute to a harmonious society, but also receive tangible business benefits through greater efficiency and overall competitiveness. In recent years, corporate social responsibility has become a major focus of China’s development agenda. Therefore, the governments of China and Germany have initiated the Sino-German Corporate Social Responsibility Project.

Objective

The overall objective of the project is that key government institutions and enterprises integrate corporate social responsibility into their strategies, policies and practices. This overall objective consists of three core components:

• Strengthen Chinese government institutions concerning corporate social responsibility, research and dialogue. This endeavours to enable the Chinese government to create a strategy for the rollout of CSR which takes into account China’s social and political conditions.
• Initiate public private partnerships with Chinese enterprises. Such partnerships will assist enterprises in developing and implementing effective strategies and enable them to communicate with relevant stakeholders more effectively.
• Promote international exchange on corporate social responsibility. Such exchanges of best practices and knowledge lead to greater awareness, know-how transfer and enhanced cooperation.

Approach

The Sino-German Corporate Social Responsibility Project is implemented jointly by GTZ and the WTO Department of the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China on behalf of the German and Chinese governments.  The four-year project, which commenced in April 2007, works on the macro level (i.e. national level), the meso level (i.e. provincial governments), as well as on the micro level (i.e. pilot projects at enterprise level to develop best practices).  The project reflects a multi-stakeholder approach inherent to corporate social responsibility and it will cooperate with ministries, business associations, research institutions, universities, enterprises and other relevant stakeholders including international and multinational organizations.

The CSR project assists the Chinese government to develop specific policy recommendations help Chinese enterprises to incorporate social and environmental concerns into their business practices.  In addition, the project implements hands-on demonstration projects with local enterprises in the provinces of Hebei and Zhejiang to create business cases and best practices required to promote the adoption of corporate social responsibility amongst Chinese enterprises.  It is an important feature of the project to create and strengthen existing partnerships between Chinese and foreign institutions and to encourage new strategic partnerships with organizations from relevant stakeholder groups to facilitate the exchange of best practices in China and various EU and OECD countries.

Results achieved so far

The project has successfully organised the following conferences, which provided good opportunities for Chinese and foreign enterprises, academia and research institutions, government and civil society to exchange views and experiences related to corporate social responsibility: 

• CSR in China 2007: A Contribution to the Achievement of a Harmonious Society (in cooperation with UNDP and Chinese Enterprises Confederation) 
• First International Conference on CSR Reporting in China (in cooperation with WTO Tribune)
• Developing a Harmonious Society – How Can CSR and Strategic Philanthropy Contribute? (in cooperation with Bertelsmann Foundation)

In October 2007 the project organised a tour to Europe on corporate social responsibility of representatives from several Chinese government agencies and associations.

Downloads

• Chinese project description
  cn-chinesisch-deutsches-projekt-corporate-social-responsibility.pdf, 0,09 MB (Chinese)