Opinion

BT: Creating sustainability a responsibility

By Kevin Taylor (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-09-13 11:46

This will be my third time to attend the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting of the New Champions in China. I enjoy attending the meetings and sharing ideas with other attendees. It is through the give and take of these conversations, and in the panels and presentations that ideas get shared, debated - and hopefully actioned. And we really have no time to lose in putting ideas around this year's meeting theme.

"Driving growth through sustainability" is really not a choice - it is our responsibility. Not just for our business interests, but also to ensure we crate a framework today that will ensure a safe, healthy and prosperous future for our children. We need to work quickly on this.

I'm fortunate enough to have lived in Hong Kong for 16 years and travel extensively throughout Asia. It is changing fast, and mostly for the better. But there have been some hiccups along the way. We need to work together at the meetings over the next few days to put in place the essential frameworks to ensure that the hectic and fast paced growth that we see transforming countries like China, is sustainable over the long term.

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I work in the telecommunications industry and we are working hard to ensure that our business is forward looking and that the products and solutions we sell around the world are sustainable. We are creating an ecosystem of financial return while lowering carbon emissions and ensuring sustainability. This is something I'll be talking about this week when I am meeting other business leaders in Tianjin.

And I'll be listening as well. One of the areas I'm really interested in this year is the new 'Technology Pioneers'. These are the people who are creating ideas and building companies that will benefit us through technology. It will be interesting to see what they are developing and how they will in turn add to creating sustainable growth. I shall watch these companies with great interest and hope to learn from them.

The author is the managing director of BT Asia Pacific