OREANDA-NEWS. April 03, 2008. System Capital Management was one of the four organizations behind the staging of the first “Developing Business Partnerships for CSR” Forum which was held at the “Opera” Hotel in Kyiv, reported the press-centre of System Capital Management.

The conference, which discussed the importance of establishing partnerships between businesses to help successfully implement Corporate Social Responsibility strategies, drew over 100 participants from business, non-governmental organizations and the media. The event was organized by the United Nations office in Ukraine and BEST analytical center with the support of System Capital Management and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

The Forum was attended by the UN Coordination specialist in Ukraine, Ms. Ruken Tekes Calikusu, Deputy of Verhovna Rada, and Honorary President Member of Research Centre “BEST”, Ms. Iryna Akimova, Director of International and Investor Relations of “System Capital Management”, Mr. Jock Mendoza-Wilson, and Nico Lange, Director of Ukraine programme and Kiev office of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

The Forum discussed the fact that advancing broader social responsibility objectives is a necessary step to ensure the growth and stability of business operations and that effective partnership between businesses can enhance CSR through overcoming challenges that are too difficult or complex for one company to address alone.

During the first plenary session the models of cooperation between companies on implementing CSR, including within sectors, competitors-to-competitors, and mechanisms of business partnership in CSR between companies of different sizes were discussed. Among the presenters that took part in this session were, Ms. Olga Rudneva, Director of Elena Franchuk “ANTIAIDS” Foundation,  Ms. Oksana Rudiuk, Head of Public Relations Department, LCC “Astelit”, who spoke on behalf of mobile operators’ business coalition combating human trafficking in partnership with IOM.  Ms. Anna Derevyanko, Executive Director of the European Business Association and Mr. Per Fischer, Senior Vice President and Head of Central and Eastern Europe, CIS, Baltic for Сommerzbank shared their opinions of cooperation and successful business partnerships in CSR.

The main focus of the second plenary session was the discussion of existing practices and opportunities for multinational businesses and large Ukrainian companies to promote CSR along their supply and value chains. The expert opinion on this subject was presented by Ms. Chabuka Barnes, Product and Service Director of CSR Europe, Belgium.  Mr. Klaus Steilmann, a leading German industrialist and the Honorable Consul of Ukraine in Germany, emphasized the necessity of support for the local economy from global business. Ms. Olesya Zhulynska, Public Affairs Manager of Coca-Cola Ukraine and Ms. Tetiana Babenko, PR Manager of Metro Ukraine shared with the audience their experiences implementing CSR strategies in their day-to-day business practice.

Commenting on the Forum, Jock Mendoza-Wilson, SCM’s Director of International and Investor Relations said: “If business is to make a real impact in helping to develop Ukrainian society then it needs to work in partnership with other businesses and with local authorities and NGOs.  We saw some excellent examples at the Forum of how locally and internationally this partnership of resources and expertise can be used to achieve results. We also saw how the sum of the team effort was much greater than that if actions were taken individually. We are delighted to have been part of the cross sector partnership which made this event happen.”