Central firms to issue social responsibility report

Centrally-administered enterprises in China will be obliged to issue reports on social responsibility beginning 2013, a means aimed to encourage them to assume due social responsibilities, 21st Century Business Herald reported Thursday, citing a government official.

"Currently, 35 percent of the central firms have yet to issue any report on their social responsibilities," said Peng Huagang, director of Research Bureau of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC), "we will request that all central enterprises issue a 2012 report on social responsibility to assess how they have assumed their social responsibilities."

SASAC is compiling a guide on how central firms in China should fulfil their social responsibilities and an evaluation system to judge their performances, he added.

Corporate responsibility has just started in China with 70 percent of enterprises in grave need of social responsibilities and nearly half of state-owned companies are unprepared for taking on social responsibilities, according to a report on the social responsibilities of China's enterprises published by Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in November, 2011.

Many people were deeply concerned about how to urge state-owned enterprises to take more social responsibilities during the annual two sessions that closed on Wednesday, said the report.