ASEAN RESPONSIBLE AND INCLUSIVE BUSINESS ALLIANCE (ARIBA)

Good corporate governance. Poverty eradication. Community development. Environmental stewardship. Anti-corruption. Labour and human rights

These are hallmarks of Responsible Business, Inclusive Business and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), which are increasingly being required of businesses globally.

Businesses have an impact on Society, whether positive or negative. Business must therefore choose to be a force for good.

It is with this intent that the ASEAN Business Advisory Council (ABAC) and the ASEAN CSR Network (ACN) established ASEAN Responsible and Inclusive Business Alliance (ARIBA), a regional network of businesses that promotes responsible, inclusive, resilient and sustainable enterprises.

As ASEAN Entities, ABAC advises the ASEAN leaders on business related issues while ACN promotes responsible business in ASEAN. Hence, ARIBA is intended to fulfil the objectives of ASEAN Charter and ‘ASEAN 2025: Forging Ahead Together’ blueprint as elaborated in the workplans of the Political – Security, Economic and Socio-Cultural Communities. The idea of ARIBA came after ABAC and ACN submitted recommendations to the ASEAN Economic Ministers at the 50th ASEAN Economic Ministers Meeting in August 2018. The Ministers were asked to support responsible and inclusive business in ASEAN to achieve the ASEAN Community objectives.

Why ARIBA?

ARIBA was set up to

realise the vision of a responsible and inclusive business community in ASEAN;
promote and enable responsible and inclusive business conduct among businesses in ASEAN and their stakeholders, to achieve sustainable, equitable and inclusive social, environmental and economic development;
support the thrust of a culture of prevention, in conformity with the principles of ASEAN charter, with specific reference on promoting a culture of good governance at all levels; (ASEAN Declaration on Culture of Prevention for a Peaceful, Inclusive, Resilient, Healthy and Harmonious Society);
provide a platform to share information, experiences and good practices on responsible business activities of the business partner entities with ASEAN Member States, other international and regional organisations, non-governmental organisations and other relevant bodies, and to find appropriate mechanisms to jointly interact amongst ASEAN Member States;
support businesses, governments and other stakeholders to implement and adopt international norms and standards as in the ASEAN Work Plans;
act as a bridge between businesses, ASEAN Sectoral Bodies, Member States and other stakeholders in enabling the adoption of responsible and inclusive business conduct.

ARIBA’S Aims

To promote the adoption, implementation and communication of the Code of Responsible and Inclusive Business Conduct in the corporate agenda, to contribute towards sustainable socio-economic development in ASEAN Member States and achieve inclusive, resilient and sustainable growth in ASEAN;
To advocate for responsible and inclusive business conduct through socialisation campaigns;
To increase awareness of Responsible and Inclusive Business in ASEAN towards sustainable relations between commercial activities and communities where they are located, in particular, supporting community-based development;
To establish and strengthen ARIBA as a platform for networking and exchange at the regional level;
To establish ARIBA as capacity builder and peer learning platforms;
To undertake research that will support evidence-based work and enable the understanding of issues for the adoption of responsible and inclusive business conduct;
To develop multi-stakeholder engagement for holistic, sustainable and equitable socio-economic development;
To encourage and enable the adoption and implementation of international standards on responsible business;
To mobilise resources to carry out activities to realise the objectives of ARIBA.

Be an ARIBA member!

The Participating Members of the Alliance will be companies operating in ASEAN that agree to the ASEAN Responsible and Inclusive Business Code and demonstrate commitment to work towards upholding this Code, which is based on global standards.

There will be 3 classes of Participating Members – Patron, Charter and Ordinary.

Click here for membership benefits.

Patron Member - SGD50,000 annual contribution

Paying patron members are represented on the ARIBA Steering Committee.

Charter Member - SGD 20,000 annual contribution

Paying charter members are in the Advisory Committee to the Network.

Ordinary Member - the annual contribution is based on the turnover of the Company:

Annual Revenue in excess of SGD500 million - SGD 5,000
Anuual Revenue between SGD100m and SGD500m – SGD3,000
Annual Revenue between SGD50m and SGD100m – SGD2,000
Annual Revenue between SGD1m and SGD50m - SGD1,000
Annual Revenue below SGD1m – SGD200

Partner Members - SGD 2,000 annual contribution

Partner members are ABAC’s Joint Business Council, Regional and International organisations representing business and/or working in the field of responsible and inclusive business.

National-Level organisations - SGD 1,000 an annual contribution