Making the list

Chinese businesses are becoming the main players when it comes to corporate social responsibility (CSR) in China, according to a new Hurun Report on the Top 50 CSR groups of 2008.

Chinese enterprises account for about 76 percent of the Top 50, compared with 68 percent last year. In 2006, the ratio of Chinese enterprises was merely 48 percent.

The fourth edition of the annual report lists 21 State-owned enterprises, 17 domestic private companies and 12 multinational companies .

"CSR is a hot topic, but I am still quite surprised at that 17 private Chinese companies are ranked on the report," says Rupert Hoogewerf, the former Forbes researcher and founder and compiler of the Hurun Report.

The gross donation from the Top 50 companies reached 5.9 billion yuan, with over 4.7 billion yuan from domestic firms, around 80 percent of the total.

Candidate companies were selected according to the ranking of China Top 500 enterprises and the ranking of Fortune 500 Companies in China, most of which were sent a questionnaire, according to the report.

The State-owned power company Grid Corporation of China (SGCC) topped this year's rankings with a total donation of 933 million yuan invested in social welfare work from 2003 to 2007.

All the 50 enterprises are selected and ranked in terms of criteria that includes involvement in social causes, number of employees, taxes paid and the amount of money donated.

Following the devastating snowfall earlier this year, Chinese companies made significant donations, with more than 44 million yuan from China Mobile and 32 million yuan from the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC). SGCC dedicated a whopping 110 million yuan for the disaster relief.

Chinese companies' CSR endeavors cover a wide range.

In education, the Bank of Communications has pledged 100 million yuan to the China Disabled Persons Federation to boost education for disabled teenagers.

With an investment of 120 million yuan last September, China Construction Bank established a fund to help 80,000 poverty-stricken high school students complete their educations within the next six years. Two months later, the bank sponsored another 50 million yuan to the China Women's Development Foundation, helping mothers in poor economic conditions.

At the same time, private companies are not lagging behind. Country Garden, a property development company headquartered in Guangdong, has pledged 275 million yuan for charitable works, the biggest endowment among private companies.

China Suning Corporation, a giant electronic appliance supplier and one of the fastest growing companies in the country, with about 100,000 employees, recorded a sales turnover of 40.1 billion yuan and paid taxes about 1.6 billion yuan in 2007, an achievement that got it listed in the Top 50 CSR rankings for two consecutive years.

Another company with its second appearance on the list is Dalian Wanda Group, established in 1998 and now the country's largest private property companies. It donated 1 million yuan to victims in six provinces during the snowfall tragedy.

Nineteen of the Top 50 companies issued annual CSR reports while only 16 did last year. Country Garden was also the first domestic private company in China to publish its CSR report. In addition, state-owned enterprises such as China Construction Bank and China Life Insurance Group released CSR reports in 2007, and excelled in their respective fields.

In January, the Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council issued guidelines on the fulfillment of social responsibilities by state-owned enterprises. It requested enterprises to adopt a policy of social responsibility in corporate management and to release CSR or sustainable development reports on a regular basis.

(China Daily 05/03/2008 page8)