Economics students and company employees to learn about corporate social responsibility
- 06.05.2009 13:25
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- 3 minute(s)
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Students and master’s degree applicants of business management faculties and company employees will attend a course to learn about corporate social responsibility (CSR). The course was presented at a roundtable meeting held as part of the additional program of the Forum of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, Info-Prim Neo reports.
“Practically speaking, the corporate social responsibility must be understood as follows: when a company does something good for the society, it improves its image,” said Lilia Covas, lecturer at the Academy of Economic Sciences of Moldova and co-author of the course “Corporate Social Responsibility”. The course was worked out with financial support from UNDP Moldova and the Government of Belgium.
“Nobody discusses social responsibility today. All the people agree that the economic entities should assume it. But it is not correct to perceive social responsibility as only philanthropic work. In a broader meaning, the CSR is a set of actions whereby businesses do more than they should in accordance with their financial obligations. They take care of the employees, environment, community where they operate, etc.,” Lilia Covas said.
After the presentation of the course, the participants in the roundtable meetings – representatives of small and medium-sized businesses – discussed the implementation of corporate social responsibility principles in their work.
Iulia Iabanji, director of the Organization for the Development of the SME Sector, said that many small and medium-sized enterprises in Moldova show social responsibility. “Surely, they cannot allocate large sums of money. However, they provide products to schools, kindergartens, old people’s homes. They also plant trees and engage persons from socially vulnerable groups, which is very important when there is a world economic crisis,” he stressed.
Eugen Josan, president of the coordination council of the Local Global Pact Network that includes 50 companies, said that this year the network will launch the national campaign “GO Green” that is aimed at reducing pollution, protecting the environment and economizing on raw material and energy resources. He invited SMEs to pursue this initiative.
Observance of human rights, labor protection and environment protection, combating of corruption – are the basic corporate social responsibility principles set out in the United Nations Global Compact initiative launched in 2000. Presently, this initiative is supported by about 7,000 companies from a number of countries.
