Yuchai Group, together with 18 organizations including National Power Grid and Baoshan Iron and Steel Group, jointly released the 2008 Sustainable Development Report at the 2009 Press Conference of Corporate Social Responsibility Report of Chinese Industrial Sector. The conference was held in Beijing in the morning of May 26. It was the second time that Yuchai published its social responsibility report. The 2007 Sustainable Development Report was made public in Beijing last year.  

The Press Conference of Corporate Social Responsibility Report of Chinese Industrial Sector, sponsored by China Federation of Industrial Economics, is the first domestic platform for enterprise to jointly release their social responsibility reports every year. It assembles industrial enterprises and associations together to compile and release social responsibility reports. Its purpose is to encourage more and more enterprises and industries to fulfill their social responsibility, establish an open and transparent self-restraint mechanism and a social oversight mechanism, as well as promote the influence and reputation of the Chinese enterprise in honoring social responsibility. Enterprises attending the press conference came from over 10 industrial fields including iron and steel, machinery, electrical, chemical, mining, nonferrous metals, coal and others.    

The chairman of the China Federation of Industrial Economics and president of Chinese Academy of Engineering Xu Kuangdi gave a speech at the conference. He pointed out: the CCP and central government pay high attention on the corporate social responsibility. Chinese enterprises have shown their responsible image by their relief efforts in the blizzard disaster and Sichuang earthquake in 2008. However, since China still at the stage of rapid industrialization and urbanization, the enterprises had to carry more social responsibility besides the economic responsibility as social citizens, he added.

In the speech at the conference, Li Yizhong, minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said: the financial crisis had taken a big hit on the economy of China and the industry was faced serious challenges. The more severe the difficulty was, the more efforts should be made by the enterprises to meet their social responsibility. He hoped that the enterprises would incorporate the social responsibility into their business development strategy and the operation process to form a united force to reduce the impacts of the crisis. Enterprises would set up their image, enhance the competitive edge and promote the rapid and sound development of society by fulfilling their social responsibility. Li Yizhong laid out some requirements. They are: currently, enterprises should save jobs as it was the first and most urgent task at present; put the safety in production as the fundamental requirement of the social responsibility; set the honesty and integrity as the base line of morality; and assume the resources conservation and environment protection as a long term mission in honoring social responsibility. His requirements contained all basic elements of the current definition of social responsibility.    

Director of the Board of United Nations Global Compact Ms. Chen Ying spoke at the conference. She told that the United Nations Global Compact Organization highly supported the work of China Federation of Industrial Economics regarding social responsibility. The publishing of the social responsibility reports from 19 Chinese enterprises and associations highlighted the good image of Chinese enterprises in the world and contributed to the stability and development of society.

An expert panel was organized by the China Federation of Industrial Economics to review the reports. At the remarks, the panel highly recognized the <Green Development and Win-win in Harmony2008 Sustainable Development Report of Yuchai Group>. It concurred that Yuchai had taken the model role as a pilot in the domestic internal-combustion engine industry by releasing the sustainable development report since 2008. Yuchai firmly followed the 10 major principles of the United Nations Global Compact and actively participated in the drafting of the ISO26000 social responsibility standard and other activities that reflected its global responsibility philosophy and its integration of the of social responsibility, sustainability and the strategy of making Yuchai a famous brand in the world, building Yuchai a large transnational corporation. Yuchai is a good example for other manufacturing businesses to fulfill their social responsibilities along with achieving sustainable development and enhancing international competitiveness. The report had a complete framework and rich case studies. It covers relevant contents of the social responsibility, in particular the combination of the concept of green development and win-win in harmony and the demonstration of the company in implementing the scientific development, environmental protection, energy conservation, people-oriented principle, stakeholders and social welfare, etc. The report itself delivers information with beautiful design and graphic illustrations. It is a sophisticated report on social responsibility. Especially, experts phrased Yuchai for its innovations in the green concept. They held that Yuchai added new characteristics to the content of energy saving and environmental protection, actively promoted the R&D and production of green products, and made tremendous contributions to environmental improvements. These indicated that Yuchai had stayed on the path of resources conservation and environmentally friendly. The panel of experts hoped Yuchai Group to continue to be the leader in implementing the Concept of Scientific Development, incorporate the corporate social responsibility and sustainable development concepts into routine operation and production, and achieve the goal of Making Yuchai a famous brand in the world, building Yuchai a large transnational corporation.

President Xu Kuangdi, Minister Li Yizhong and Ms. Chen Ying separately presented the certificates for the issuance of social responsibility reports to all the participating enterprises. Liang Ping, CCP secretary of Yuchai Machinery Co., Ltd, received the certificate on behalf of Yuchai.  

As a large-scale corporation specializing in making diesel engines, Yuchai will make every effort to develop and promote the sustainable concept and operation. Through publishing annual social responsibility reports, the company will show its achievement on the fulfillment of corporate social responsibility to stimulate the company to advance the effort in carrying out the social responsibility, develop green power, boost the harmonious development between a company, community and environment and be an excellent corporate citizen.

Authors: Li Chunmei, Zou Hui