SINGAPORE ― More than 70 experts on corporate social responsibility gathered in Singapore on Tuesday to discuss the strategic necessity of CSR as a key tool to grow business.

The three-day conference, which came as a follow-up meeting to the last year’s event in Vietnam, centered on the media’s role in promoting CSR in Asia. 

“We are here to provide a platform to link media representatives and experts in CSR so they can share their experiences,” said Paul Linnarz, regional representative for economic policy and resident representative for Japan of Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, an independent German political think-tank.

The political foundation views CSR as an important element for good governance across the world.

“We hope that the conference can help journalists to get the ideas on CSR and business people to learn from them about how to better communicate with the public,” he said in his welcome remarks, underscoring the importance of the media’s role in raising awareness on CSR.

CSR includes the economic, legal and moral expectations that society has of corporations. It is a widely used concept to describe corporations’ respect for labor, law and social standards and their engagement in community projects for a fairer society.

Until a decade ago, the concept largely meant no more than philanthropy, but it has become a key to sustainable economic management.

“CSR is like fishing. If fishing exceeds the reproduction rate, fish will go extinct,” said Wendy Chapple, deputy director of the International Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility at Nottingham University Business School.

“CSR is putting things back into the system so that society can go on,” she said.

Gerard Forlin, a Queen’s Counsel based in London, said in a keynote address that whether businesses like it or not, CSR is becoming a necessity rather than a choice as the world is getting more interconnected.

“Once multinational companies start to have a problem in corporate governance in one area or one country, it will quickly spread to other areas and countries,” said Forlin, who also works for Maxwell Chambers in Singapore and Denman Chambers in Sydney.

Htet Zan Linn, CEO of Myanmar-based media company HUB MYANMAR, found the conference quite “effective” for his CSR projects back home.

“I could learn how to better implement CSR projects from presentations by panels and speakers,” Linn said.

Another guest expressed his expectation for the upcoming sessions.

“I look forward to learning why it is important for SMEs to engage with media in their CSR projects,” said Can Viet Hong, a communication officer for Vietnam Business Council for Sustainable Development.

Above all, no man is an island, said Thomas Thomas, CEO of ASEAN CSR Network, quoting the English poet John Donne.

“No company or organization is isolated. We should work together to raise awareness on CSR and the media can play a vital role,” he said.

Cohosted by German political think-tank Konrad Adenauer Stiftung and ASEAN CSR Network, the two-day conference, titled “Corporate Social Responsibility: Connecting the Private Sector with the Media,” will be held until Thursday.

By Ock Hyun-ju Korea Herald correspondent (laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com)