ASEAN business opportunities

In the past one or two years, more and more companies have begun to engage in THE construction of ESG or CSR and have released ESG reports. About a quarter of the listed companies that will hold performance presentations in 2021 will disclose ESG or SOCIAL responsibility reports, including some central enterprises.

At the ESG China Forum 2022 Spring Summit held in April, Li Jun, director of the Social Responsibility Bureau of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, pointed out that it is an important task to promote the implementation of ESG concepts and strengthen ESG governance in central enterprises. At the same time, it is the only way for central enterprises to realize high-quality development and accelerate the construction of world-class enterprises to better fulfill their social responsibilities and thoroughly implement the CONCEPT of ESG.

In fact, not only central enterprises are implementing ESG, but many digital technology companies are also actively implementing ESG. On May 6, at the "Digital Passion" ESG Salon held by Century Huatong, Ao Ran, executive Vice President and Secretary General of China Audiovisual and Digital Publishing Association, said bluntly: "At present, the rapid development of digital economy has brought about the protection of workers' rights and interests in new forms of employment, information disclosure and privacy protection, science and technology ethics and other issues, which have gradually become the focus of government departments and the public, and become the substantive issues in the ESG management of relevant industries and enterprises."

At present, the rapid development of digital economy has brought about the protection of workers' rights and interests in new employment forms, information disclosure and privacy protection, science and technology ethics and other issues gradually become the focus of government departments and the public, and become the substantive issues in the ESG management of relevant industries and enterprises. From the perspective of digital technology industry, how to do ESG well? How can digital technology enterprises adjust their relationship with the environment, society and governance?

In addition to the traditional financial and operational indicators, ESG more comprehensively quantifies, indexes and values the performance of enterprises in the three dimensions of environment (E), social responsibility (S) and corporate governance (G). On April 15 this year, China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) issued the Guidelines for Investor Relationship Management of Listed Companies, formally including ESG as one of the contents of communication between listed companies and investors in investor relationship management.

According to the Global Alliance for Sustainable Investment (GSIA), by the end of 2020, the global asset scale practicing the concept of sustainable investment (ESG investment in broad sense) has reached 35 trillion US dollars, with a compound annual growth rate of 13% since 2012, significantly higher than the average annual growth rate of 6% of the total global asset management scale. ESG's share of total global assets managed has risen sharply from 21% to 36% over the past eight years. The United Nations Organization for Responsible Investment Principles (UNPRI) has more than 3,000 signatories.

Ao Ran said that since the 18th CPC National Congress, the Party and the government have attached great importance to green and sustainable development and issued a series of policy documents. Social, environmental and corporate governance issues have always been the focus of government attention, such as scientific and technological innovation, intellectual property protection, employment promotion, targeted poverty alleviation, rural revitalization, safe production, green development, ecological protection, etc., which point out the direction for enterprises to promote ESG practice. Aoran called on China's digital technology enterprises to establish a localized and perfect ESG system, and hoped that digital economy and digital culture can drive the overall development of national economy and culture.

Over the past two decades, digital technology companies have accumulated a great deal of talent, capital and data advantages, and have a first-mover advantage in many fields. Aoran believes that new technologies such as 5G, big data and artificial intelligence are emerging as a new driving force for social development.

From the perspective of enterprises, how can we truly achieve sustainable development and become an important force for social progress? Zhu Ruizai, a professor at Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, put forward the idea of "good business". That is, entrepreneurs explore social value in their business activities and present it in corporate strategy, business development and resource allocation, so that enterprises can achieve better business value by creating social value. Zhu Rui took the game industry as an example to promote the good and sustainable development of the industry and commerce through youth protection, cultivation of Internet game literacy, cross-border promotion of social innovation, civilization inheritance and cultural communication.

Recently, the first ESG report released by Century Huatong presents the company's plans, measures and achievements in coping with environmental change, undertaking corporate social responsibility and optimizing corporate governance from eight dimensions: show style, fulfill responsibility, remember mission, dance leader, keep upright, join hands, warm heart and protect home.

Wang Yimin, director of social responsibility of Century Huatong, introduced that in 2021, centering on the ESG concept of "science and technology driving love and accurate practice of public welfare", Century Huatong focused on improving corporate governance and actively embraced the development and application breakthrough of digital technology co-existing between virtual and real, and made remarkable achievements in many fields. For example, in the past year, the company actively responded to the national call on "dual carbon", carried out effective resource and energy management, and built a green data center, so as to continuously reduce the impact of operations on the environment. In the future, century Huatong will continue to explore and seek sustainable and healthy development of society and enterprises based on the strengths and capabilities of interactive means and digital scenes.