Association for Sustainable and Responsible Investment in Asia
Conferences & Events
SOCIAL VENTURE NETWORK ASIA
SVN Asia Conference: 9 - 11 November 2003, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand.
Rethinking Corporate Social Responsibility.
Living Economies in Asia.http://www.svnasia.or.th/svnasia/gotocontent.asp?group=25
After the 1997 Asian economic crisis, 'business as usual' was largely resumed as the corporate mainstream. In smaller circles business leaders with a visionary mind support each other in shaping creative answers in response to the challenges of our time and of the future. More and more businesses in Thailand and other Asian countries substantially engage in community development, environmental care and the promotion of culture. Opposite trends keep pushing for maximizing profit with little regard to the environmental and social consequences. Emerging forms of "Living Economies" in all parts of the world urge to search for new paradigms in business.
Target participants:
Corporate leaders and CEO's; entrepreneurs; SME (Small and Medium Enterprises) managers and strategists; economists; investors and investment consultants; marketing experts and trend researchers; human resources development managers and labour unionists; business consultants, trainers and academics; communication experts and media representatives; community business and savings/credit organizations; government representatives; policy advisors; consumers groups; Peoples' Organizations and NGO's; students and trainees
Human Security
Both mainstream and 'avant-garde' start to recognize that social and environmental responsibility are factors of business-reality that can no longer be ignored. Recent cases of corporate breakdown and new legislation in the USA; the results of the Earth Summit in Johannesburg; the 'voices of the poor' heard at the public meeting of the UN Commission on Human Security in Bangkok; as well as the war engaged against Iraq; attribute new dimensions to the urgent need for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and business ethics.
Change of Economic landscape
Moreover, 'Fair Trade' is no longer a marginal idealistic network of small co-operative enterprises only: it is widely supported as an alternative principle to 'Free Trade' in the debates around the WTO. Also new technologies in the fields of Information and Communication (ICT), energy (hydrogen fuel-cells; solar energy) and biology may change the outlook of the world radically within decades.
Paradigm shift?
Social Venture Network Asia (SVN Asia) ~ together with likeminded networks and movements ~ intends to explore a new spirit in approaching Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Asia. SVN Asia encourages approaches that go beyond the requirements of legislation and common sense. The SVN Asia conference in November 2003 provides a platform to explore visionary management in a wider context. What are the most profound principles for sustainable business and global transformation in the 21st century? Are we facing a shift of paradigms? Can genuine economic alternatives between the extremes of capitalism and communism emerge and become groundbreaking? Are "Asian values" ~ what do you mean? ~ making a difference in business praxis? What is the meaning of Corporate Social Responsibility vis-a-vis 'anti-globalisation' at one hand and the ever growing powers of ~ transforming? ~ multinational mega-corporations at the other hand?
Living Economies
Local, regional, international business initiatives in new creative directions start blossoming in many countries in Asia under different names ~ often induced by well-established companies ~ and with a diversity of objectives and styles. "Living economies" emerge. The first Asia-wide Social Venture Network conference in November 2003 will be hosted by SVN Asia (Thailand). The host intends to create a two-days open platform for lively interaction between groups of business leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, management trainers, NGO representatives and creative minds involved in policy design.
Purposes:
1. To learn from pioneers' stories: inspiration; new initiatives in business; new approaches to social, environmental, cultural responsibility of corporations; related to new developments in science
2. To exchange experiences / foster dialogue among business persons, economists, civil society, politicians, artists, philosophers, NGOs on fresh approaches to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR); to identify new training challenges
3. To initiate research & development
4. To promote creative networking in support of social and environmental responsible business in Asia: Living Economies in Asia
5. To establish a Social Venture Network Asia Committee as an institutional contribution to plural regional and global business networkingExpected results:
1. New professional inspiration
2. Better understanding of new trends in business among civil society
3. Strengthened regional networking of Asian businesses promoting responsibility and creativity
4. Strengthened global networking among businesses promoting CSR in Asia and the Pacific (Europe, USA, Africa, Latin America)
5. A SVN Asia working committee with country representatives as permanent actors
6. An Asian research & development projectTessa Tenant, Chair of Association For Sustainable & Responsible Investment In Asia, is one of the panellists in the panel discussion "CSR In Practice: Doing The Impossible Or The Inevitable?"