Companies releasing better quality CSR reports: Index

Chinese enterprises have shown a steady improvement in the quality of their corporate social responsibility reports, according to a newly released index.

State-owned companies have generated increasingly higher quality reports, said the Golden Bee Corporate Social Responsibility Index.

As of Oct 31 this year, China released 2,265 CSR reports, up 1 percent from last year, and the number of high-quality reports has been growing year by year. Stakeholders including staff, community and government are what the reports concern most about.

"The disclosure of information is a very hard topic, not only in China but also in other parts of the world," said Maisoun Jabali, head of the CSR Center at the Swedish embassy in Beijing.

The quality of reports is improving because of innovative structures, content and formats, the Golden Bee index indicated.

China WTO Tribune, a monthly journal on China's World Trade Organization-related work established by the Ministry of Commerce in 2002, started to evaluate Golden Bee reports on CSR since 2009.

"Among all the reports, English reports accounts for less than 8 percent. The internationalization level of the reports is to be improved," said Yin Gefei, vice-president of the China WTO Tribune.

He said Chinese companies should draw on experiences from multinational corporations, and increase the information disclosure about consumers, supply chains and cooperating partners.

Yin suggested that enterprises publish reports that take a more reader-friendly and innovative approach and focus on information that stakeholders need to know, and companies may invite their stakeholders to involve in the work of CSR reports.

Most of the well-regarded companies in China have achieved sustainable growth by operating with credibility and integrity. In addition, they have done a great deal to protect the environment and contributed to worthy causes and fostered innovations.

Leading enterprises like SINOPEC, State Grid Corp of China, Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, China Mobile and China Southern Power Grid Co Ltd, were awarded among those 24 companies that steadily release high-quality reports.

Golden Bee said those companies have established comprehensive releasing mechanism of CSR reports, and others can refer to them when writing the reports.

Foreign enterprises and those from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan are more concerned with information disclosure regarding suppliers and social organizations. This year, the number of reports that foreign companies released surged 104 percent over last year, with American and Japanese enterprises releasing over half of the total reports, and the quality has been kept increasing.