The Asean CSR Network (ACN) has launched its “Asean CSR Vision 2020” initiative, with support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), in an effort to mainstream responsible business conduct in the region.
SINGAPORE, June 12 (Bernama) — The Asean CSR Network (ACN) has launched its “Asean CSR Vision 2020” initiative, with support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), in an effort to mainstream responsible business conduct in the region.
ACN chief executive officer Thomas Thomas said: “Asean community integration presents many opportunities and benefits and we all look forward to it.
“But with fast economic growth will also come many challenges. If the growth we achieve is not equitable and inclusive, it will create tensions in society and will be unsustainable.
“We must balance our quest for economic expansion with principles of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) — responding not just to the need for more profits but also ensuring that all the people of Asean benefit in the long term,” he said at the launch of the initiative here today.
Thomas said in the course of doing business, basic human rights should be respected, labour standards raised, the natural environment protected, and corruption eradicated.
He said the initiative also builds on prior and current work supported by the Asean Foundation, through the Japan-Asean Solidarity Fund, and the United Kingdom Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO).
Key donors and partners from business, government and civil society shared various perspectives on mainstreaming responsible business conduct in Asean at the kick-off event.
Main speakers included Rafendi Djamin, Indonesia Representative to the Asean Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights; Puvan Selvanathan, Head of Sustainable Agriculture of the UN Global Compact; Edgardo Amistad, Chairman of ACN; Hakan Jevrell, Swedish Ambassador to Singapore; and Anne-Charlotte Malm, Incoming Head of Regional Development Cooperation at the Embassy of Sweden in Bangkok.