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Multinationals' earthquake relief efforts
By Bao Dao (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-05-26 10:54 Bruno Lafont's latest visit to China seemed to come at a bad time. When the chairman and CEO of Lafarge, the world's biggest cement maker, boarded a plane to Beijing, it was just hours after the May 12 killer earthquake hit Southwestern China's Sichuan province. So he rescheduled his calendar and held an emergency meeting in Beijing as soon as he arrived. After the meeting, Lafarge set up a 50-member taskforce to fly to Dujiangyan city in Sichuan, where the firm has a factory. By May 15, Lafarge had provided shelter and support for over 3,000 people at its Jiangyou plant in Mianyang and over 300 people in Dujiangyan, giving them food, water, sanitary facilities and temporary shelters. Also, around 100 Lafarge employees worked with local rescue teams to help search for survivors. On May 15, Lafarge announced a donation of 1.5 million euros ($2.37 million) to Mianyang and Dujiangyan, which were hard hit by the 8-magnitude earthquak. After attending the Women's Forum Asia in Shanghai on May 15, Lafont immediately flew to Dujiangyan to visit the cement plant in Dujiangyan, which was already damaged by the earthquake. In fact, one of Lafarge's 16,000 employees in China was killed in the earthquake by the collapse of his home. That tragedy, as well as the shocking images of the victims broadcast on China's TV networks, prompted Lafont to call for all of the employees to make donations. The company promised to match another corporate donation with the amount donated by employees. Outpouring of support The show of support by Lafarge is just a part of a wave of funds poured by multinationals into the earthquake relief efforts in China. Chen Deming, minister of commerce, said on May 22 that foreign-invested companies, multinationals as well as companies from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao, had already donated more than 1.7 billion yuan (244.83 million) in cash and goods worth more than 200 million yuan. Also some other companies have committed to donating more than 200 million yuan. That figure is still not comparable to those donated by State-owned enterprises (SOEs) and private businesses, but could well reflect multinationals' corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices as well as their commitment to local communities as donations by SOEs and private businesses are partly spurred by patriotic spirit. "Since the earthquake, we have been focusing on helping our employees, their families and the local communities around our plants affected by this tragedy," says Lafont. Besides donations, Lafarge has supplied equipment such as quarry vehicles to free those people still trapped in the rubble and to transport food supplies into the affected regions. The generosity is receiving applauds from people in China where a number of multinationals are losing respect in recent years although they have enjoyed overwhelming popularity in 1980s and 1990s. (For more biz stories, please visit Industries)
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