The following are some of the year’s corporate social responsibility highlights as reported by China Philanthropy Times.
In March 2022, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council established the Social Responsibility Bureau, whose primary responsibilities are to study and propose policies to promote the fulfilment of social responsibility by State-owned enterprises (SOEs).
Besides SOEs, the past year also witnessed many publicly listed companies formulating rules for their donation management practices. The amended version of the Guidelines on Listed Companies clarifies that listed companies should determine the approval authority of their board of directors for the company’s external donation practices and establish strict review and decision-making procedures.
There has been an improvement in companies’ practices. In early November, the National Rural Revitalization Administration launched a project to collect typical cases of social entities participating in consolidating and expanding the results of poverty alleviation and rural revitalization. During the same month, the China Association for Public Companies also released a report titled the “Best Practice Cases of Listed Companies Supporting Rural Revitalization”.
Well-known companies including Midea and Baofeng Energy made grand donations to the education sector. Furthermore, Midea’s donations were in the form of shares, which indicates that donating equity has become an important method of giving for corporates.
Using the business approach to solve social issues gained more attention and support. In July, the “Social Enterprise Board” established and operated by the Tianfu Stock Exchange was officially opened, allowing the development of companies that aim to solve social issues to be effectively linked to the capital market.
In the bigger context of rural revitalization, many firms have launched live-streaming projects to help farmers and increase their income, opening up sales channels for agricultural products.
