企业社会责任: 更完善的社 会责任体系 -- a Sino-German Event

I recently attended a Sino-German trade event at the quaintly named Belgian EU Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo. A wide range of German and Chinese business leaders spoke for short slots on different aspects of CSR compliance in supply chains. Germany has strong economic ties with China and seem to have been relatively successful in supporting the development of CSR through its trading partners led by GTZ, a German government institution. Mr Kang Bingjian, "Director of the Department of International Trade and Economic Affairs of the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China" told us that CSR and sustainable development is all part of the government's plan to develop the "harmonious society" in China. Mr Hans-Jurgen Beerfeltz, "State Secretary, German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development" said a few words about the significance of the Sino-German relationship and how well China was doing. Then the business people got stuck in with a series of high impact, high quality presentations of achievements made in CSR practice, reporting, transparency and risk mitigation. Johnny Kwan chairman of BASF China told us of the success of the BASF "1+3 " CSR project through which BASF's suppliers and customers in "building a responsible supply chain" with 120 of their trade partners now working with the UN Global Compact and engaging with the China Business Council for Sustainable Development.

I was very encouraged to hear of the development and progress of a new Chinese standard established by the China National Textile and Apparel Council (CNTAC) in 2008 called CSC9000T. "China’s first sustainability reporting guidance system to guide the social reporting practice of textile companies." It was interesting to hear the case of H&M in China under the spotlight for selling clothes at prices not viable under Chinese labour conditions. We were told that such clothes were being made in Bangladeshi and Vietnamese sweatshops and imported.

German companies help to fund the costs of CSR compliance but as a number of speakers agreed, many Chinese suppliers are being squeezed to the bone on price and then expected to comply with international standards with no additional funds. The result is that a number of Chinese factories are seeking out the new and growing domestic markets in China and refusing to supply certain western companies. Brigitte Wolff, MD, of Management Engineers China, a consultancy, highlighted the problem of decreasing profits as "buyers demand CSR compliance without adequate compensation for products." She gave a great talk on building responsible supply chain management but highlighted the current difficulties in gaining buy-in to CSR and codes of conduct in China, for example:

* Lack of awareness of CSR and its benefits
* Lack of capacity to comply to CSR i.e. codes of conduct and voluntary social standards
* Lack of skilled service providers e.g. for training, advisory, and auditing
* Considerable costs of compliance shouldered by suppliers alone:, e.g.: high certification and auditing fees through multiple audits per month
* Opaque standard landscape: benefits of standards and codes of conduct unclear to enterprises

The message was that it is going to take time to build capacity and standards auditing expertise and company commitment to ensure that CSR does indeed contribute to "the harmonious society." But GTZ, the German Chamber of Commerce and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development are trying their best to support and nurture these capacities in China with strong support from German firms and their suppliers.