2017 Top Ten CSR Policies in China

GoldenBee advocates to take more responsible and sustainable actions for our better society, business and future. This is consistent with the value of GoldenBee.
 
Policy guides the change, and also manifests its power through practices. As the first step in 2018, China WTO Tribune selected the 2017 top ten CSR policies (in chronological order) to review all efforts that Chinese government made in promoting social responsibility development, and hopes to welcome a better 2018.
   
On February 8, 2017, Jiangsu Economic and Information Technology Commission and several governmental departments jointly issued Guidance on Corporate Social Responsibility Development (the Guidance). The Guidance clarifies the general requirement, major contents, work practices and guarantee mechanism of advancing CSR development in Jiangsu Province. It also proposes to establish a sound work mechanism for promoting enterprises to fulfill social responsibility, and build CSR evaluation system. In addition, other local governments in Zhejiang, Qinghai, Shanghai and Shenzhen also issued the documents and requirements to promote CSR development.
 
Keyword: regional responsible competitiveness
 
Reason for listing:
 
As a big economic province, Jiangsu Province hopes to guide enterprises to consciously fulfill their social responsibilities and shoulder responsibility for building advanced manufacturing bases with international competitiveness by regulating CSR. It shows that social responsibility is being highly valued by all levels of government and has gradually become a necessary choice to guide the regional comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable development and enhance regional responsible competitiveness. It is conducive to transforming government functions and benefiting enterprises to compete globally and win chances for cooperation.
   
On May 5, Ministry of Environmental Protection, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, National Development and Reform Commission and Ministry of Commerce jointly issued Guidance on Promoting Green Belt and Road.
 
The Guidance proposes to build a pragmatic and efficient eco-environmental protection cooperation and exchange system, support and service platforms and industrial technology cooperation bases, and formulate and implement a series of ecological and environmental risk prevention policies and measures to lay a solid foundation for the green Belt and Road in three to five years; build a more complete services, support and security system for eco-environmental protection, implement a number of important eco-environmental protection projects, and achieve good results in five to ten years.
 
Keywords: eco-environmental protection, Going Global, diversified cooperation
 
Reason for listing:
 
Advancing green Belt and Road construction is an intrinsic requirement of China to share the concept of ecological progress and achieve sustainable development. It is an important practice of China in participating in global environmental governance and promoting the concept of green development, and also an important move of serving to build a community of interests, a community of responsibility and a community of shared future.
 
Government guidance, enterprise commitment and social engagement are the keys to success in building a green Silk Road together. This not only requires the establishment of a multi-bilateral cooperation mechanism, but also should give full play to the role of enterprises, social environmental organizations, think tanks and the public.
   
On June 12, Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) and China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) signed a Cooperation Agreement on Promoting Environmental Information Disclosure by Listed Companies. It proposes to promote the establishment and improvement of mandatory environmental information disclosure system of listed companies, supervise the listed companies to fulfill the obligations of information disclosure, and implement their environmental responsibilities.
 
Keywords: environmental protection, mandatory information disclosure, supervision
 
Reason for listing:
 
Although China’s capital market has required listed companies to disclose their environmental information, due to the lack of a sound environmental disclosure system and the “non-mandatory” requirement, most listed companies still have not completely disclosed their key information and the key indicators have not been strictly disclosed according to requirements.
 
The governmental departments in charge of environmental protection and the competent departments that supervise and manage national securities and futures market, jointly promoted the “cooperation agreement” with high standard, strong enforcement and wide influence. This is not only the specific measure of implementing “gradually set up and improve the mandatory environment information disclosure system of listed companies and issuers” in Guiding Opinion on Building Green Finance System, but also a latest “signal” of the trend in China’s capital market to require listed companies to disclose environment information.
   
On June 26, Ministry of Finance, State Administration of Taxation and Ministry of Environmental Protection solicited public opinions on The Implementation Rules Environmental Protection Tax Law (Draft for Comment).The Rules, under the provisions of the tax law, details the taxpayers on environmental protection tax and clearly points out that other producers and operators paying environmental protection taxes refer to individual businesses and other organizations.
 
Keywords: environmental protection tax, law enforcement
 
Reason for listing:
 
Environmental Protection Tax Law of the People’s Republic of China is the first tax law enacted since the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee. The Rules, linked with Environmental Protection Tax Law, will not only enhance the rigid enforcement of laws and regulations during strengthening sewage charge to environmental protection tax and internalize environment cost, but also allow the collection and management of “corporate declaration, tax collection, environmental protection cooperation and information sharing” to be legal-based. The Rules promote enterprises to shoulder entity responsibility, and actively play an important role of taxation in controlling and reducing pollutant emissions, protecting and improving the ecological environment.
   
On September 6, Chinese government website (www.gov.cn) issued Voluntary Service Ordinance, and it has come into effect on December 1, 2017. This Ordinance systematically stipulates several aspects, including the legal status, standard management and support and guarantee of voluntary service organizations.
 
Keywords: voluntary service, rule of law
 
Reason for listing:
 
The Ordinance fills up the legislative gap at the national level in the field of voluntary service in China. This helps to clarify the relationship between volunteer service organizations and other social service providers, and promote the various types of volunteer service organizations to clearly position themselves, strengthen management, enhance capabilities, and expand service fields. It also helps to effectively release their creativity and productivity, and enhance the professional and scientific level of voluntary services. Meanwhile, professionalization is the development trend of volunteer service. Only by giving full play to individual expertise and experience and serving the public interests can we better solve social problems.
   
On September 25，the Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Creating Healthy Development Environment for Entrepreneurs to Promote Outstanding Entrepreneurship and Play a Good Entrepreneurial Role was officially issued. This is the first time that Chinese central government identifies the position and value of entrepreneurship with special document. The Opinions propose that it is necessary to guide entrepreneurs to proactively fulfill social responsibilities, strengthen their senses of honor and mission to fulfill social responsibilities, lead and support them to join in the philanthropy cause. Entrepreneurs from SOEs should be models to fulfill political responsibility, economic responsibility and social responsibility.
 
Keywords: entrepreneurs, mission and value
 
Reason for listing:
 
Vigorously promoting entrepreneurship can play the role of entrepreneurs in the commander of production factor to establish a fairer and more efficient production function and distribution function. It also prevents market failure, policy failure, corporate default and moral loss in the process of capital creation to pursue integrated value creation, and enhance sustainable development capacity. Meanwhile, it will promote the social responsibility work to be one of the priorities of CEOs, and inject new vitality for innovation, the power of reform and emotional personality charm into economic and social development through entrepreneurs’ personal practices and demonstration.
   
On October 18, President Xi Jinping delivered a report to the opening of the 19th CPC National Congress in Beijing. President Xi proposed a series of key concepts and judgments, including that the socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, and the principal contradiction facing Chinese society has evolved to be that between unbalanced and inadequate development and the people’ ever-growing needs for a better life.
 
Keywords: remain true to our original aspiration, enterprises in the new era
 
Reason for listing:
 
The 19th CPC National Congress stimulates more and more enterprises to learn the report and strike a chord, which also helps them to remain true to the original aspiration of “competition for win-win achievements and development for repaying the society” in practice. In addition, the requirement of the 19th CPC National Congress gives new directions and new connotation of CSR, that is, to be new enterprises in a new era, to be pioneer enterprises to promote ecological progress and to be force enterprises in resolving livelihood issues.
   
On November 2, State Post Bureau, Ministry of Science and Technology, and National Development and Reform Commission and other seven governmental departments jointly issued Opinion on Collaboratively Promoting Green Packaging of Express Delivery Industry. The Opinion proposes to increase the proportion of degradable green packaging materials to 50% and complete special express packaging recycling system, eliminate heavy metals and other special packaging materials that exceed the limits, and complete a special express packaging recycling system by 2020.
 
Keywords: express packaging, recycling
 
Reason for listing:
 
The Opinion clearly defines the goal of industrial green governance and proposes 12 specific tasks to require the packaging of express industry to make obvious progress in green and recycling packaging and reduction of packaging numbers. Meanwhile, integrating packaging transformation into economic, social and environmental responsibilities indicates the technology innovation with responsibility as a core, and will raise the awareness of green logistics and green consumption among suppliers, upstream and downstream enterprises, and even the public.
   
On December 17, the General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council jointly issued Reform Plan for Ecological and Environmental Damage Compensation System. The plan requires a pilot program of the ecological and environmental damage compensation system nationwide and further identify the compensation range, subjects of responsibility, subjects of compensation claim, approach to damage compensation, etc. to form corresponding management and technical system for appraisal and assessment, capital security and operational mechanisms, gradually establishing an ecological and environmental damage restoration and compensation system to accelerate the ecological progress.
 
Keywords: ecological environment, compensation, mandatory enforcement
 
Reason for listing:
 
Facing ecological and environmental damage, the “enterprises cause pollution, the mass suffer and government pays the bill” has been a long-term issue, resulting in the awkward situation of “difficult to prevent pollution sources and get back the liability and damage compensation.” This plan will effectively crack this predicament and a new round of reforms will fundamentally make polluting enterprises be held accountable for their behaviors and allow them to directly bear the cost of pollution through a number of criteria, compensation limits and scientific estimates. The plan fills the gap of ecological and environmental damage compensation system, and is a useful exploration in building such a system.
   
Targeted poverty reduction will be one of the “three tough battles” for the next three years as the country tries to secure a decisive victory in becoming a moderately prosperous society in all respects, said a statement issued after the Central Economic Work Conference held on December 18-20. In the coming three years, the country will work to ensure the quality of poverty reduction efforts under current standards, focus on helping special groups and eradicating abject poverty, inspire the impatience of the poor and strengthen examination and supervision, it said.
 
Keyword: poverty reduction
 
Reason for listing:
 
No poverty is not only the top priority of the UN Millennium Development Goals but also the top priority of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Therefore, it has become an important issue for many enterprises to repay the society and fulfill their social responsibility.
 
Although the main subject of poverty alleviation is the government, it still needs to gather the strength of the market and the active performance of enterprises (especially state-owned enterprises) to provide funds and material supplies to the people in the poor and remote mountainous areas. Enterprises also need to enhance the self-sufficient capability of the poor by increasing industrial support, providing employment transfer, safeguarding the livelihood of employees in difficulties, increasing employment training and technical output, etc. This is the right approach to poverty alleviation and an important entry point for the sustainable development of enterprises.