Officials participate in a discussion on social responsibility during a lecture held yesterday.
Sheikh Dr. Thani bin Ali Al Thani, Chairman of Social Responsibility Committee at Dar Al Sharq, said that the winners of CSR Awards were chosen this year to promote ethical and human concepts in companies’ activities, combining profitability with social commitment.
“There is no doubt that such an approach is consistent with the vision of the country’s leadership, which is concerned with the human, social and development dimension at the local and international levels,” said the Chairman.
He was delivering a speech during an event held to discuss “Social Responsibility Between Ethical Commitment and Profitability”. Dar Al Sharq, under the patronage of Sharq Law Firm, held a lecture by Dr. Monther Zaidan, an institutional development expert and a member of CSR Award Committee at Oryx Rotana Hotel.
Sheikh Dr. Thani bin Ali Al Thani said that the lecture comes within the plan of the CSR committee in promoting awareness of social goals and the participation of all sectors in achieving it. "It is a fruitful and continuous effort in which many institutions participated with us to achieve such goals.”
The lecture was attended by a number of experts and specialists. The lecture discussed the returns of social responsibility on institutions and their main activities, in addition to the future of social responsibility in light of the transfer of wealth to the millennial generation (the environment and society generation).
The Chairman pointed out in his speech that the CSR Committee was issuing a monthly supplement to cover all CSR activities in Qatar and highlights its multiple programs in Qatar and abroad.
“The goal of the committee is to increase awareness of the importance of social responsibility programs in all sectors which contributes to development programs and to promote growth and sustainability of the activities of companies, institutions and bodies, especially in light of the boom Qatar is witnessing currently in different fields, which makes it urgent to organise such social programs”, he said.
For his part, Dr. Monther Zaidan, stressed the necessity of promoting the concept of social responsibility, as promoting this concept enhances the development.
“The Social Responsibility term has evolved over the last years and the focus of companies initially was on profit only, but the term developed later to cover ‘responsible investment’, which means investing in a way that does not harms society, and then developed to cover the necessity of preserving the environment, society and governance," he added.
“Companies take from society and its resources and therefore they must serve it. The investment of any company must take into account three important matters which are the environment - society - governance,” he said.
For his part, lawyer Abdellah from Al Sharq Law Firm said that “Al Sharq Law Firm provides free services to many needy people who are unable to provide fees. This service is provided in partnership with a number of institutions in the country and the goal is to provide assistance to people who are unable to give fees, so the Firm intervenes to help such cases to serve the community.
“Our plan is to bring the number of community service hours to 2,000 hours per year. Last year, we provided about 1,000 hours to the community and many people benefited from it, amounting to approximately 60 to 70 people,” he added.
