Aramco Asia president: CSR an integrated part of everything we do

Q+A: Ibrahim Al-Buainain

After the conclusion of a weeklong Aramco Asia Youth Program, Ibrahim Al-Buainain, president of Aramco Asia, a fully owned subsidiary of global integrated energy and chemical company Saudi Aramco, talked about the company's corporate social responsibility endeavors and achievements and shared his understanding of what CSR is at Aramco Asia.

When did you start CSR community engagement? What have you achieved since it started?

We started the CSR activities in a multitude of ways since we established our headquarters in Beijing to promote sustainable social, knowledge and environmental development in the areas where we have a presence. Over the years, we have shifted our citizenship strategy to focus on leveraging our core capabilities to amplify the benefits and opportunities we create.

We recognize the pivotal role of community engagement and have made significant progress in our citizenship strategy. It is our civic duty to help make the communities in which we operate better places to live and work.

We strive to improve the environmental health and safety of these communities, enhance educational opportunities, increase economic viability and promote energy sustainability through conservation and efficiency.

Aramco Asia's CSR outreaches cover many countries in the Asia-Pacific region. For example in China, we partnered with China's National Center for the Performing Arts to promote cultural exchanges between China and Saudi Arabia.

In Fujian and Yunnan provinces, we renovated student dormitories in primary schools, providing 200 students with safer, improved accommodation to support their academic aspirations. Additionally, in Yunnan we constructed new bridges, benefiting roughly 300 villagers with safe and efficient access to schools and markets.

How do you interpret CSR as an integrated part of everything you do? And what is your principle for doing CSR?

CSR brings the elements of sustainability into our daily operations. We provide eco-friendly and sustainable communities for people to live in. We leverage our business activities and our unique expertise for the benefit of the people and the communities where we operate. We make sure all of our CSR endeavors have the greatest effects.

The CSR endeavors Aramco Asia has been making not only reflect our value and commitment, but help address environmental and sustainable challenges. Our own unrelenting CSR efforts have formed an integrated part of everything we do.

Everything we do serves the dual purpose of expanding our business scope while leveraging our business activities to provide the greatest number of benefits and opportunities for the greatest number of people possible.

My personal view is always about the way we engage and design the programs. The monetary value of the program is not always a good measure for the success of any CSR programs. That is why we spend time and effort to design the programs that enable us to meet the objectives of our CSR strategy.

Being a global energy provider, what is your understanding of CSR at Aramco Asia?

Generally speaking, CSR refers to a kind of continuing commitment that an organization makes toward social and economic sustainability.

As a global enterprise, we are also a global citizen. We take an interest in and contribute to the health and prosperity of the communities that help make our operations successful.

It should contribute to a better society and cleaner environment; it should meet stakeholders' expectations; it should address local priorities; it should contribute to sustainable development including people's health, well-being, social welfare and community at large; it should support Aramco Asia's business goals and it should align with one or more of Aramco Asia's core CSR pillars.

What are the major CSR programs that are carried out?

Aramco Asia forges cooperation with various organizations in the region to fulfill CSR strategies in alignment with our three CSR pillars of community, knowledge and environment.

In China, we are doing a Clean Air Asia project with the Environmental Science and Engineering School of Tsinghua University to support air quality and climate change, low emissions and urban development.

In terms of knowledge, we have formed partnerships with the top level Academy of Mathematics and System Sciences to demonstrate our appreciation to the organization's efforts in bringing up academic leaders and talents in the fields of mathematical and system science, and King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture partnered with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of Philosophy to enhance social science research in China and Saudi Arabia.

We also worked with news portal Caixin to establish libraries for rural primary schools located in Hebei and Fujian provinces in the belief that knowledge can make change for students there.

We offered scholarship to students in Sun Yat-Sen University to raise brand awareness among them, as they will be our potential recruits in South China; we collaborated with the National Center for the Performing Arts to facilitate cultural exchanges between the two countries; we also partnered with the China Development Research Foundation to support 10 kindergartens with capacity for up to 25 children each for a full year in Yunnan province.

Our overall Asia CSR projects also benefit Japan, South Korea and Singapore.

In Japan, we forged a partnership with Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology for research related to the marine environment. We cooperated with Yokohama Senior High School of International Studies, where Japan's first Arabic-language high school was built, to improve the learning environment.

In South Korea, we worked with ChildFund Korea and Korea Broadcasting Service to help children hospitalized with chronic diseases. We also did a program with Community Chest of Korea and Disabled Students Scholarships to help highly motivated and high academic achievers who come from needy families complete their university education. All these efforts contributed to the community pillar.

In Singapore, we collaborated with Habitat for Humanity and Batam Build to fulfill community obligations by building houses in Batam, Indonesia.

Can you give us a brief introduction of the just concluded Aramco Asia Youth Program? Why did you support such an event?

For the weeklong Aramco Asia Youth Program we provided 30 children of ethnic groups from needy families in Yunnan province with a fun-filled and nurturing atmosphere. Our goal is to give them a fun summer together, and they are expected to engage, celebrate, learn, play and enrich their lives together.

We jointly designed, with China Daily and the China Youth Development Foundation, a wide range of activities to suit their interests. The children visited Juvenile and Children Reading Experience Wonderland, the China Daily headquarters, the National Center for the Performing Arts, the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, the Bird's Nest, the Water Cube, the National Museum and the Beijing Science and Technology Museum.

They also attended the flag-raising ceremony in Tian'anmen Square and took part in a CCTV program recording and interacted with local children.

The feedback I've got shows that they enjoyed these activities and opened themselves to this weeklong experience. The program is beneficial for them to develop coordination and teamwork.

The youth program is one of the first programs to bring children of ethnic groups in Yunnan to Beijing. Beyond donations or any other forms of corporate philanthropy, we view it as an investment in knowledge, education and community development that foster the healthy well-being of children.

(China Daily 08/03/2015 page15)