Centrally-administered state-ownedenterprises (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 releasesor 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 Nationsinitiated the Global Compact in 2000, emphasizing the role ofbusiness in the areas of human rights, labor, the environment andanti-corruption.
Eleven centrally-administered SOEs including Baosteel, ChinaOcean Shipping (Group) Company and China Aluminum, havevoluntarily joined multinationals to release reports on socialresponsibility and sustainable development.
Sources with the SASAC noted that the growing consciousness ofsocial responsibility within China coincided with global trendsand had profound political connotations.
China's centrally-administered SOEs, though still limited instrength and core competitiveness when compared withmultinationals and first-class international companies, were thebackbone of China's state-owned economy and an ultimate embodimentof 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 andcollective-owned economy into a variety of ownerships with thestate-owned enterprises at the core.
Private firms have experienced a rapid takeoff but remain inthe fledging stage, hiring 69.3 million employees by last July, up 518 percent on the previous year, and possessing a combine dregistered 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 itsofficial website, the SASAC said that SOEs must reflect the "StateWill" to seriously implement the scientific development outlookproposed by the governing Communist Party of China for the"dominant and irreplaceable" roles they have played in securingnational economic lifelines.
Since the establishment of the SASAC in 2003, these companieshad registered an average annual rise of one trillion yuan insales revenue by 2006. Their annual profits and taxation grew by100 billion yuan.
Kudos should go to Sinopec and PetroChina who pledged toincrease output and imports to ease domestic fuel shortagesdespite the refined oil products being far cheaper than imports,said the statement.
An earlier report said 14 central SOEs were organized by theChinese government to offer about 1,000 jobs to new graduates bythe end of 2008, particularly those from low-income families.
Calling the centrally-administered SOEs the "bellweathers" inleading local companies into global cooperation, the SASAC said aresponsible image and the capability to act responsibly willsharpen the cutting edge of domestic companies.
The directive also urged SOEs to integrate the sense of socialresponsibility into their corporate culture and governance, openmore dialogues with global peers and participate in theconstitution of international standards on businessresponsibilities.
But "a continuously rising profitability" was still underscoredas a necessity for SOEs to better fulfill their socialresponsibilities.
Source:Xinhua
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