A total of 64 projects and business leaders across Asia were selected as recipients of Asia Responsible Enterprise Awards (AREA) 2019, which was an increase of 19% from last year. Regarded as the top corporate social responsibility (CSR) awards in Asia, this year’s ceremony was organized in Taipei, after being held in Macau, Singapore, Bangkok, and Manila previously.
Organized by Enterprise Asia, the leading non-governmental organization for responsible entrepreneurship in Asia, the AREA aims to recognize and honor Asian businesses and leaders for championing sustainable and socially responsible business practices. With the categories of Social Empowerment, Investment in People, Health Promotion, Green Leadership, Corporate Governance, and Responsible Business Leadership. The categories look beyond the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in incorporating the role of the government and the civil society in powering meaningful changes to the world, with the corporate community as the enabler and catalyst for this change.
Over 300 attendees were present at the by-invitation only event, comprising of industry leaders and leading CSR practitioners. Some of the dignitaries who graced the event include Mr. Chang San-cheng, former premier of the Republic of China (Taiwan); Mr. Jonathan Chen, vice mayor of New Taipei City; Tan Sri Dr. Fong Chan Onn, chairman of Enterprise Asia; Dr. Eugene Chien, Ambassador-at-Large of the Republic of China (Taiwan), former minister of foreign affairs and minister of environment of the Republic of China (Taiwan); and Dato’ William Ng, president of Enterprise Asia.
According to Mr. Ng, “Over the past decade CSR has evolved to creating shared values, which is based on the idea that companies can simultaneously increase profits and enhance competitiveness by reframing their corporate objectives to solve societal problems.”
He adds, “Apart from recognizing the outstanding ideas for sustainability, we aim to celebrate their important contribution, and encourage the institutionalization of sustainability.
When sustainability, doing good and social change become part of our corporate DNA – they become permanent and not a subset of our profit and loss statement – but the reason for it. We hope to ensure CSR efforts are directed to the right areas following the judging parameters of effectiveness, relevance, impact, integration, and sustainability. This is in line with Enterprise Asia’s founding pillars of Responsible Entrepreneurship and Investment in People.”
This year, over 200 submissions from 16 countries were received from companies across Asia, with judges led by Dr. Chien, sieving through the submission over a three-month judging period.
According to Dr Chien, "The panel of judges were impressed by the quality and diversity of submissions this year and had the challenging task of evaluating and determining this year’s finalists. This is a far cry from when we first started giving out the awards in year 2009. Besides being able to demonstrate the design and execution of sound and effective CSR programs, much thought has been given to its impact and measurability.”
He adds, “This year, over 35% of the winners emerged from Taiwan, overtaking Thailand, which has been taking the lead in the number of winning entries over the past few years. This demonstrates the expertise and capability of the CSR practitioners in Taiwan and we congratulate them on their commitment in achieving the SDGs.”
Among the notable winning projects were “Less Carbon, Better Life” by Pacific SOGO Department Stores which instilled environment protection awareness by integrating its stakeholders to jointly create a green department store; and “Financial Education Program for Public Schools in the Philippines” by BDO Foundation, which raised the financial literacy of 24 million students in more than 47,000 public schools across the Philippines.
Mr. Ng concludes, “To date, our Asia Responsible Enterprise Awards has seen over 200 successful CSR projects being highlighted, with millions of communities uplifted and billions of lives touched and saved. Many of these projects has also served as a benchmark to other companies. Quite a few CSR departments and regional initiatives are now modelled after our categories and judging methodology, and we are quite happy to have played our part in drawing the direction for CSR across Asia.”
The AREA 2019 was supported by Official Local Partner - Taiwan Institute for Sustainable Energy; Official PR Partner - Fides Corporate Sustainability; Sponsor - Zero Emission Venture; Supporting Organizations - AmCham Taipei; British Chamber of Commerce; Chinese International Economic Cooperation Association; Circular Economy Club; CSRone; European Chamber of Commerce; Green Trade Project Office, Taiwan External Trade Development Council; Institute for Global Environmental Strategies; Ministry of Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change, Malaysia; Taiwan Corporate Governance Association; Official News Release Distribution Partner - PR Newswire; and Official Media Partners - BusinessWorld; Commercial Times; SME Magazine; The Nation; Singapore Business Review and Tuoi Tre News.