The lack of compliance for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) could threaten the very existence of export house. According to GTZ-AVE-NIC National Business Standards Roundtable for Pakistan's industry, the CSR is critical for attaining the competitive advantage in today's global economy.
Federal Ministry has commissioned the project for economic cooperation and development. To tackle this core issue, the National Institute for Competitiveness (NIC) and GTZ Pakistan on behalf of the Roundtable Secretariat-Pakistan on Business Standards is organising the fifth session of the GTZ-AVE-NIC Roundtable Conference at the Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry on December 11.
The theme of this meeting is "Towards a National Corporate Social Responsibility Framework." The conference will be facilitated by Arif Zaman, a Corporate Social Responsibility and Risk Management expert from the Commonwealth Business Council (CBC), London. He has extensive experience in developing frameworks for CSR in many Asian and European countries and has also developed the CSR framework for Japan.
The objective of this Roundtable Conference is to create awareness, learning and code of conduct for environmental and social standards that can greatly improve the productivity, competitiveness and the performance of the industry in terms of export potential and value addition.
The NIC is undertaking this project in collaboration with the GTZ and AVE, foreign trade association of German retail trade, commissioned by Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation for promoting the international environment and labour standards for Pakistan. The GTZ and AVE, the German foreign trade association has been engaged in facilitating a national forum where Pakistan businessmen and stakeholders can interact with their European counterparts and directly address issues of supply chain integrity and environmental and social responsibility.
Through this project, recognised environmental and social standards are to be introduced to supplier companies for compliance and export to Western markets, in Europe and USA. It has been pointed out that for Sialkot labour violations could cost individual companies, more than 4,000 jobs alone.
A single company in Sialkot, in a leading export sector, which employs 8,000 to 9,000 people, and expects exports of its products to the tune of Rs two billion (almost $33 million, Euro 26 million), is directly threatened by lack of compliance for CSR.
Such irregularities could cost each company almost 70 percent of its business at source. For such industries, losses resulting from lack of compliance could possibly threaten the very existence of their companies.
The aim of this programme is to strengthen the competitiveness of the companies. Since spring 2003, this project has reached supplier companies with a total of around 1.2 million workers in China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania.
In the initial phase, some 2,000 company representatives were sensitised to the need for social standards. By the end of 2006, 1,700 production sites will have undergone an audit.
Four sessions of the Roundtable have been successfully held in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad respectively; in addition to a number of awareness symposiums in major industrial hubs of the country.
This Roundtable is now poised to present the final draft of the National Corporate Social Responsibility Code of Conduct for implementation in export-oriented industries like Sialkot, based on extensive dialogue, research and surveys from the industry. The aim is to enhance the compliance, competitiveness and business potential of these industries to combat global compliance challenges.
Heads of trade bodies have been invited to add their thoughts to the aim of jointly developing and implementing a system of verifiable supply chains for compliance towards corporate social responsibility, over a realistic time frame.
Being part of a regional programme that covers five key supplier countries in the region, the GTZ-AVE and the working group sees the impact of their work reaching well beyond Pakistan.
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