Remarks
by
H.E. Cho Tae-Yul
Vice Foreign Minister of the Republic of Korea
At
the Global CSR Conference 2013

November 11, 2013
Sheraton Walkerhill, Seoul

Mr. Lee Seung-han, Chairman of the UN Global Compact Korea network,
Mr. Georg Kell, Executive Director of UN Global Compact,
Mr. Keith Darcy, Executive Director of ECOA,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,

I am delighted to be here with you today and offer a few words of congratulation on the eve of the opening of the 2013 Global CSR Conference.

I am very proud that the UN Global Compact Korea Network is hosting this important conference. It was only half a century ago that Korea struggled to rise above the ruins of war and the anguish of poverty. But today we are actively participating in the discussions on corporate social responsibility, together with globally recognized and respected companies from around the world. This attests to the extraordinary growth of Korea and Korean companies, not to mention our commitment to take up on the responsibilities for and make contributions to the international community commensurate with our level of development.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The history of corporate social responsibility is much older than most of us tend to think. The scriptures of ancient Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam contain verses banning the collection of excessive interest and encouraging taxes on the wealthy. This illustrates the longstanding will of humanity to strike a balance between the act of seeking profits and the common values of the society as a whole.

Such an early sense for ethics developed into a modern concept in the 1960s, during which industrialization progressed across the globe. Confronted with the threat of environmental destruction, the international community started to actively deliberate on what would be the right set of ethics that corporations should pursue to address such threats.

Since then, the scope of corporate social responsibility has broadened into a range of areas, including sustainable development, labor, women, children and human rights. And as we saw in the movie Blood Diamond, the international community introduced the Kimberly Process in 2003 to put a stop to the immoral profit-seeking behavior of global corporations that were fueling conflicts in Africa. This shows that corporate social responsibility is not irrelevant to regional peace and security.

In other words, in the course of the last five decades, the concept of corporate social responsibility has evolved with globalization and the progress of the concept of global community. Its horizon has broadened to the point that today it encompasses most UN values. In particular, as the United Nations is pursuing the post-2015 development agenda to eradicate poverty and attain common prosperity with global partners, including private companies, the historical meaning of the social role and responsibility of corporations is greater than ever before.

UN Global Compact was launched 13 years ago to heed such calls of this era. Since then, UN Global Compact has been urging corporations to mainstream social responsibility into business activities, and to ensure that business activities are in line with UN’s overarching goal of eradicating poverty.

Previous negative views that corporate social responsibility is not economical and undermines the growth of developing countries have been reversed with the efforts of UN Global Compact. In fact, ideas that “doing good is good for business” and “CSR pays” have proliferated, and today most companies around the world, including Korean companies, have adopted corporate social responsibility as part of their main business strategy.

In this regard, I want to thank former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan for launching UN Global Compact, incumbent UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for inheriting and further developing it, and UN Global Compact and participating companies as well as UN Global Compact Korea Network for their great contributions.

Distinguished guests,

The Korean government is well aware of the value and consequence of corporate social responsibility. For this reason, we in the government have been actively supporting Korean companies’ initiatives for corporate social responsibility so that they can enjoy the trust and respect of the citizens across the globe.

Since 2011, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in particular, has been supporting the socially responsible activities of Korean companies that mostly do business in developing countries. Korean embassies in 22 countries have been encouraging and supporting CSR activities that fit the local environment. The embassies are also playing a bridging role between Korean companies on the one hand and local governments and companies on the other so that they can forge effective and sustainable partnerships.

Such initiatives of the government are part of Korea’s greater efforts to pay back the international community’s aid and assistance when Korea was struggling to overcome poverty. They are also to strengthen the soft power of Korea and Korean companies based on the trust of the international community.

Companies that are responsible and transparent, companies respecting common values and care for future generations, companies participating in the global quest to end poverty – these are the companies pursuing the enlightened global businesses that Secretary-General Ban called for. These companies are also invaluable assets that can promote the enlightened national interests of Korea.

I hope that in the next two days at the Conference, the participants will reaffirm their commitment to, and share best practices of, corporate social responsibility amid the rapidly changing global environment.

Thank you very much.