CSR to provide a cutting edge

“It [CSR] costs, but it is small compared to what you win. Why do we do CSR? Because we are part of the society and there’s a need. We all want to be good citizens and it’s good for our business,” Thomas Frisenberg, CEO of Danish-Vietnamese joint venture E-softflow, told a CSR workshop in Ho Chi Minh City last week.

He told the workshop, organised by the Danish embassy, that CSR was also good for public relations. However, a Vietnamese participant told VIR there was a lack of awareness about CSR in less developed countries like Vietnam.

“An example is environmental pollution. Companies in Vietnam pollute the environment by releasing untreated waste water into rivers, or releasing to much smoke into the sky. And they mean to do that. Some other companies even release untreated solid waste illegally even though it’s easier for authorities to catch them red-handed.”

About 100 delegates from Danish-Vietnamese joint ventures and Danish companies across Vietnam attended the full-day workshop. CSR counselor advisor Soren Asbjorn Albertsen from the Danish embassy in Beijing said multinational Danish group Maersk was a good example of CSR in action.

 After media reports in 2009 about discrimination and extortion of factory workers at Maersk’s Dongguan container plant in China, strengthened CSR awareness in its middle management. The Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs trade council supported Maersk by training 100 foremen at the factory CSR linked to Chinese culture.

“The training involved films, speeches, presentations, group exercises and role play with the active participation of the foremen. “What was the outcome? The training was the final step in the CSR programme undertaken at the Dongguan factory to strengthen CSR awareness and communicate company values,” said Albertsen.

Via the seminar, the Danish embassy in Vietnam introduced tools for companies to do CSR self-assessments and to acknowledge the potential for improvements on socio-environmental practices.

The embassy said it would offer a free-of-charge 10-hour CSR review to joint ventures  and Danish companies in Vietnam. The reviews would be conducted by the Danish Trade Council’s advisors in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.