Multinationals must shoulder more responsibility
By Ning Xiangdong (China Daily)Updated: 2007-01-17 11:08
Several days ago, I was invited to deliver a speech at a corporate citizens forum and the organizers asked me to comment on multinational companies' corporate social responsibility in China. I agreed happily.
Why happily? Because CSR is a significant part of China's social progress and a commitment to corporate responsibility from multinationals is especially anticipated by the public.
The fact that the organizers picked the topic indicates the focus the whole society has on this topic. China used to treat multinationals as guests and offered them preferred treatment over domestic companies.
Now people have begun to see multinationals as part of society.
The Chinese have a tradition of treating foreigners with generosity and hospitality, so a guest usually gets better treatment. But becoming a family member means taking on responsibility.
Against this background, we have begun to ask multinationals to consider their social responsibility.
This is not asking too much from them, because they are capable of doing so. Compared to Chinese private and State-owned enterprises, multinationals have the power and influence to play a significant role in helping China's social progress.
Dissatisfaction
To be frank, this expectation from the Chinese reflects their dissatisfaction about the status quo.
In many donations by multinationals, we see a lot of genuine willingness to grow with the local community, but they are not enough. I think multinationals can be more helpful in the following four areas:
First, multinationals should operate honestly like they do in their home
markets, with the consciousness of a local citizen.
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