Asean CSR

The Study assesses the experiences and mitigation strategies of foreign invested companies in Vietnam in relation to high risk business activities, which may be relevant to or indicative of corruption offences under Vietnamese law and applicable foreign laws. It aims to inform potential foreign investors of risk areas which they may face when doing business in Vietnam.

The study was produced by the Vietnam Business Forum (VBF) with support from the ACN Small Grants Fund.

Click here for the English version.

Click here for the Vietnamese version.

This guidebook serves as a quick guide for cooperatives in pursuing a “green” approach in doing their business. It provides a basic understanding of the concept of green growth as explained in the context of cooperatives and presents a strategic process of incorporating green growth practices in their management and operations. It also contains examples of green growth practices that can be adopted by cooperatives and a methodical guide on prioritizing the practices.

The guidebook was produced with help from ACN's Small Grants Fund.

Click the picture to get the Guidebook/Toolkit.

Transparency International - Malaysia has published a new practical guide dedicated to SMEs to promote corrupt-free business environment. The handbook is available in Malay, English and Mandarin.

This guide was produced with the help of ACN's Small Grants Fund.

Click here for the guide in English.

Click here for the guide in Mandarin

Click here for the guide in Bahasa Melayu

This booklet was designed to support hoteliers to understand the meaning of adapting Human Rights principals into their daily business. It provides information on central aspects of responsible tourism as well as human rights and how they are connected with each other. The booklet gives examples of possible real life situations and recommendations on how to deal with them.

This booklet was produced by the Myanmar Responsible Tourism Institute, with aid from the ACN's Small Grant Fund.

Click the picture to view the report.

The paper aims to determine if SMEs in the Philippines are capable of improving their practices to become sustainable, and if these practises would enable them to compete in the global market given the ASEAN integration. The paper also aims to identify the constraints that SMEs face in engaging with CSR practices.

Click the image for the report.

This brochure was produced by the Cooperation Committee for Cambodia (CCC), with help from the ACN's Small Grants Fund. The brochure provides an introduction to Responsible Business Conduct and business and human rights. It also gives an over view of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. These two leading mechanisms can promote responsible business conduct and be used to hold corporations to account for their actions. This is not easy to achieve. CCC recommends impacted communities, civil society and workers first try to engage directly with the company to resolve grievances and address adverse impacts.

The brochure can be downloaded in both English and Khmer.

A study by National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School’s Centre for Governance, Institutions and Organisations (CGIO) and ASEAN CSR Network (ACN) revealed that majority of Singapore companies are still not communicating sustainability.

186 out of a total of 502 mainboard listed companies communicate their sustainability practices, with an average level of disclosure of 43.6 points, an increase from 160 companies in 2013.

Of the 186 companies that had communicated sustainability, 24 adapted the GRI framework, an increase from 19 in 2013. Of these 186 companies, 24 companies made materiality disclosures, largely related to areas under the social indicator. 

26 blue chip companies on the Straits Times Index (STI) were found to disclose information pertaining to their sustainability practices in a more comprehensive manner than their non-STI counterparts, with a score of 56.8 against 41.4 in 2013. The study also found that the 17 Government-linked Companies (GLCs) performed better in their level of sustainability disclosure than non-GLCs, with a score of 51.9 against 43.3 respectively.

Only 12.9 percent of companies disclosed information about their climate change efforts and even fewer companies disclosed information on biodiversity management efforts.

SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING BY REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUSTS (REITs)

27 out of a total of 33 Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) on the SGX communicated their sustainability practices, compared to 21 REITs out of 29 in 2013. The overall level of disclosure increased to 43.6%, from 42.4% in 2013. 

Click the picture below to access the report.

Singapore companies lag behind ASEAN counterparts in sustainability reporting regulation

A study by National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School’s Centre for Governance, Institutions and Organisations (CGIO) and ASEAN CSR Network (ACN) revealed that companies see the relevance in sustainability but majority struggle to identify its key impact, risks and opportunities.

Based on indicatiors such as governance, economic, environmental and social, Thailand outperformed with a score of 56.8%, followed by Singapore (48.8%), Indonesia (48.4%) and Malaysia (47.7%). The study also revealed that government-linked companies and state-owned enterprises fared better on their quality of disclosures. 

Click the picture below to access the report.