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Report of the 2nd Membership Meeting
Global Compact Network Vietnam (GCNV) – 11.01.2010
The second membership meeting intended to give an update on the work of GCNV and its
current initiatives to the participants. Based on the recommendations made by the members on
the first meeting in August 2009, the meeting was divided into seven main sections:
A- Update on the four Core Activities:
1. Guidance
2. Capacity Building and Training
activities
3. Networking
4. Vietnamese Solutions, Presentation on
Pilot activities and best Practices
B -Update on the progress of the
Network
5. GCNV-Update on Communications
6. GCNV- PS- Update on the Partnership
scheme
7. GCNV- Reflections on Sustainability
C- Follow up-actions
January
Additional information on Component 2 sent to all participants
February
GCNV team to find ways of engaging participants on sustainability and sustainability strategies.
March
Re-launch of the Partnership Scheme revised application form
Launch the ‘Mapping of social and environmental issues by industry’ report
April
Launch of the GCNV website
May
Launch of the Corporate Social Responsibility Toolkit for Vietnamese Firms
Launch of CSR Law Database
‘The GCNV is the national corporate social responsibility (CSR) centre of excellence;
supporting companies identify, anticipate and diffuse the tensions between business
and communities, business and the environment, business and the consumer
leading to sustainable business in a sustainable society’.
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A- Update on the four Core Activities:
1- GUIDANCE
Mr Vinh introduced the whole team of the GCNV to the participants, including the relevant persons at
UNDP and VCCI. Mr. Christophe Bahuet, Deputy Country Director, UNDP, reconfirmed UNDP’s
commitment to endorse opportunities for dialogue (he just mentioned the CSR award and upcoming
ASEAN meetings, amongst others) and praised GCVN and its articulated
vision statement approved by its participants.
Ms Sara Clancy, Senior Technical Advisor, updated the participants on
the progress of the Online self assessment in Vietnamese and in English.
The tool is a joint effort of GCNV, GC in New York and the GC Network
Denmark. It will be published on line soon.
2- CAPACITY BUILDING
Mr Vinh reported on his recent study tour to Europe where GCNV delegation met with relevant
stakeholders and learnt from the experience of the Belgian Network. GCNV is aware that knowledge
from other countries is not directly applicable to Vietnam, Mr Vinh sees as the task of GCNV to translate
existing practices into concrete actions appropriate to our reality.
Curriculum development:
The Kenan Institute Asia (K.I.Asia) will undertake activities related to ‘embedding CSR in Vietnam
through Research, Training and Curriculum Development’ to form future business leaders at master and
bachelor’s level. K.I.Asia will work with Vietnamese partners to conduct research and develop university
level curriculum on responsible management and CSR. In order to do so they identified some priorities:





be practical,
work with SOEs and SMEs,
be mindful of regional differences
establish a working group of champions
Develop a Train of Trainers course for local
educators
The Ministry of Education and Training has given its approval to this initiative especially to the ToT
which is seen as the key of the success.
3- NETWORKING
The meeting itself provided an opportunity for the participants to connect with a range of national and
international stakeholders working on CSR issues in Vietnam and abroad. A networking lunch took place
so participants had the opportunity to engage in the following discussions:
 Child labour, UNICEF
 Domestic Violence Paz y Desarollo,
 Curriculum development Kenan Institute
 GCNV-Partnership Scheme
 GCNV Communication and website
 GCNV Strategies for sustainability of the Network
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4- VIETNAM SOLUTIONS
In this part of the meeting three initiatives under progress were presented:
a. Mapping of social and environmental issues by industry
b. Practical Tool kit to apply in SMEs
c. Example of recent award – Vietnam CSR Laws online Database
a. Mapping of social and environmental issues by industry
Dr. Richard Welford, Chairman of CSR Asia, Professor at the University of
Hong Kong, illustrated the results of their need assessment analysis and
suggested the priority industries and sectors GCNV should work with. The
results of the exercise can be summarized as follow:
Top tier
recommendations
High risk and lots of
opportunity but other
remediation efforts in
place
High risk but more
limited opportunity
to act
Limited risk and
limited opportunity
1. Food processing
4. Other manufacturing:
1. Agriculture
2. Construction
•
2. Fishing
4. Tourism (Hotel and
Hospitality)
3. Extractive
industries: Oil &
gas and mining
GCNV should focus
further on these sectors
and develop tools for
bringing to life the GC
Principles
•
Garments,
apparel
and textile and shoes
3. Forestry
6. Telecommunication
s and post
Wood products and
furniture
(recent
developments)
GCNV should work and
liaise
closely
with
ongoing
remediation
efforts
5. Real estate
Not a priority at the
moment
for
the
network
Cross-cutting theme: Banking and finance
Participants actively comments on the selected sectors and proposed new
areas of investigations. Agriculture and Forestry were perceived as priority
areas, however CSR-Asia argued that at the moment the biggest drivers for
responsible practices are consumers, therefore it is more impactful to
intervene in the food processing industries and hope for trickle down.
Not a priority at the
moment
for
the
network
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The overall recommendations to the GCNV are:
 Focus on sectors which have a high value added and trickle down into their supply chain
 Avoid duplications
 Cooperate and be informed of relevant organization’s activities
 Not engage with sectors where GCNV have limited potential to impact
The results of this mapping exercise will be sent to all participants by the end January 2010 and a new indepth study on the three selected sectors has already taken place.
b. Corporate Social Responsibility Toolkit for Vietnamese Firms (Practical Tool kit to apply
in SMEs)
Ms. Nguyen Mai Huong, Managing Director, VietValues
Vietvalues hopes to add to the Vietnamese business community as stated in their motto
“Increases your competitiveness with local values”. They are committed ake
Vietnamese practices based on traditional core values and existing legal system
through compliance with international standards but also through innovation.
Therefore they decided to build a concise tools for Vietnamese Companies structured
on the 10 principles of the GC.
c. Example of recent award – Vietnam CSR Laws online Database
Mr. Nguyen A Chau, OneStep Viet Co.Limited
Mr. Chau provided an overview of history of demands over the past 40 years and showed some powerful
on the hazardous waste discharged in Vietnam and irresponsible labour practices.He identified the main
challenges for CSR to take off in Vietnam:
1. Low awareness, not only of entrepreneurs but also of the laborers. In order
to mitigate this, Onestep created the CSR law database.
2. Lack of commitment, entrepreneurs do not yet see the potentials of CSR
3. Lack of knowledge, he believed that the work of GCNV and Kenan will fill
up this gap
4. Lack of self assessment system. Factories have very good set of answers
for auditors but after they leave, the problems remain; therefore, self
assessment and recovery system are needed.
In conclusion Chau presented the CSR laws database, built by OneStep in cooperation with specialized
lawyers and their law experts. He debriefed the audience on all the functions, including the innovative
SMS download service.
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B -Update on the progress of the Network
5- UPDATE ON GCNV Communications and Website
Ms. Clelia Daniel, Communication & Partnership Specialist firstly thanked
the working group for their precious insights, then introduced Mr. Tran Dinh
Toan, Deputy CEO of OSB Investment and Technology JSC , responsible to
develop a website for GCNV. Mr Toan introduced the demo of the Web
Portal, the technology used and the various forms of interaction to be the
users will have in the webportal.
In order to assess the participant’s preferences a questionnaire was submitted. The result shows that the
participants had positive feelings about the website. People are particularly interested in the Minisite
where each participant will be able to share his/her CSR practices. Most of the members consider their
internet presence as very important. They will visit GCNV website on a weekly basis, mostly to check for
CSR/sustainable development information and updates.
6- UPDATE ON GCNV- PS Partnership Scheme
Ms. Sara Clancy, Senior Technical Advisor of GCNV identified the need to revise the application form of
the GCNV-PS to better respond to the needs of the participants and asked for the participants’ feedbacks.
7- REFLECTIONS ON THE SUSTAINABILITY of the Network
GCNV proposed to form a working group to discuss on the sustainability of the Network after 2011. Mr
Christophe believes the ultimate objective of the GCNV is to become a business-owned and business-led
initiative. UNDP’s ambition is to capitalize on the achievements and move the network towards
operational and financial sustainability, which is the key success.
Companies (57%)
NGO's (33%)
Academics (5%)
Business
Associations (5%)
Figure 1 - GCNV Members