Qatar is considered among the top countries which have developed Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for companies through which they are allocating a part of their budgets to achieve social projects and developments, said a top official.
“Social responsibility has become one of the main goals for companies in Qatar. The companies are having competition in this regard,” Sultan Rashid Al Khater, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Economy and Commerce and a member of the board of directors of the Social & Sport Contribution Fund said yesterday while addressing the Fourth Conference for Corporate Social Responsibility organised by Dar Al Sharq and attended by top officials, businessmen and ambassadors.
The two day conference also organised an awards ceremony for companies and institutions and launched the fourth edition of the White Book 2016 on “social responsibility practices for companies and institutions”.
Abdullatif Al Mahmoud, CEO, Dar Al Sharq Group, said that the principles of corporate social responsibility have become a global trend, aimed at integrating the sum of the private sector in local development efforts.
“We through our engagement with the country institutions have become more effective in spreading the CSR practice year after year,” he said while addressing the Fourth Conference on Corporate Social Responsibility.
“We began with 70 companies and institutions in the first conference in which 36 companies qualified to compete and the figure has now risen to 120 participants in the conference today in which 60 companies and institutions have qualified to compete. This indicates the extent of the great interest that these companies and national institutions are taking in the society and its members,” he added.
Ewa Polano, Ambassador of Sweden to Qatar, said that the presence of a large number of businessmen at the conference had reconfirmed the growing interest in CSR in Qatar.
Polano observed that charity was very good and important but it is not the right definition of CSR. “CSR is about respect for human rights in the relation between employer and employee, it is to do business in a sustainable and non-corrupt way,” she added.
Ten companies have been chosen among 45 companies which applied for Social Responsibility Awards (SRA), said Sheikh Thani bin Ali bin Saud Al Thani, Chief of CSR Committee.
Abdullatif Al Mahmoud, CEO, Dar Al Sharq Group, and Sultan Rashid Al Khater, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Economy and Commerce, handed over the awards to the winner companies.
