Fulfilling corporate social responsibility (CSR) to local communities is the key factor for the sustainable development of both foreign-invested companies and their host country, said a delegation of Swiss multinational corporations.

Swiss multinational corporations are trying to get CSR tasks up and running in one way or another, said the delegation led by Andrej Motyl, the Swiss Ambassador to Vietnam, in a recent meeting held at Tuoi Tre Newspaper’s head office in Ho Chi Minh City.

As a developing country, Vietnam is attracting more and more foreign-invested enterprisers (FIEs) to the country, said Motyl.

However, these foreign firms may come to Vietnam for many reasons, from low-cost labor to abundant and cheap minerals. As a result, as the host country, Vietnam should make it clear what it expects from FIEs.

Fortunately, both the Vietnamese government and the local media have stated very clearly that the country needs more high-tech and knowledge-based firms, especially those coming to Vietnam for long-term engagement, he added.

Be here to stay

“All Swiss firms already with a foothold in Vietnam, luckily, have chosen to stay long-term. They, in fact, have absolutely no deadline, like a 10-20-year life span,” he said.

“They have really integrated into local society besides setting up their bases, creating jobs and churning out products for sale.”

“This is not a PR show, but a real long-term buildup process. As almost all of them [Swiss firms] are multinational corporations, they usually hire more overseas employees than Swiss nationals, around 9 to 1.”

“As they have done for decades, they realize that they should deliver more to the local communities for their presence and localize themselves, for example by building a school,” he added.

“Moreover, as multinational firms, they have gathered knowledge and experience from many countries around the globe.”

“With the knowledge and experience they have gained, they can bring additional benefit to local communities, like teaching the locals to adapt new farming practices for better crops, as Nestlé and Syngenta are doing,” he added.

Fulfilling CSR tasks - one way or another

Representatives of Swiss multinational corporations, including Roche, Nestlé, ABB, Syngenta, Norvatis, SGS, and Holcim, also shared their opinions about their CSR at the meeting.

ABB Vietnam, a powerhouse in power/automation technologies and power transformers, has launched many programs to support locals, from helping disabled children and offering power transformers to Hoang Mai District, to scholarships for local technical and science students to join overseas study trips, said JianPeng Fu, general director of the company.

Nestlé Vietnam considers CSR an integral part of its business in Vietnam. The company has five plants up and running across the nation, with over 2,000 direct local employees.

The food-beverage manufacturer, whose slogan was “Live in Vietnam, living Vietnamese” when it set up its first office in Saigon in 1912, is running CSR programs in three main areas - nutrition, rural development and water - globally, including in Vietnam, said Rashid Aleem Qureshi, general director of Nestlé Vietnam. 

As it bought around 20-25 percent of the 1.5 billion tons of Vietnamese robusta coffee beans produced in 2012 to process to around 24 countries, Nestlé Vietnam is trying to support Vietnamese coffee farmers in developing more sustainable and profitable farming practices.

In complying with the national coffee development scheme for 2020 initiated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the firm is also working with the ministry to offer training courses in new coffee farming practices for locals in the Central Highlands.

Similar training courses in modern farming practices for growing tea, potato, and soybean have also been launched.

“The cooperation is also a typical example of how well a Private-Public Partnership (PPP) can run. The models were showcased in Indonesia in 2011 and Thailand in 2012,” said Qureshi.

Regarding the field of nutrition, Nestle launched its Milo school program and provided an interactive game on nutrition for local students.

To ensure a successful outcome for the farming practice program, Nestlé Vietnam has also joined hands with Syngenta Vietnam.

The fertilizer-pesticide manufacturer has actively launched its CSR programs to support local farmers in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam’s key rice-growing region, and in other farming areas across Vietnam, said Shane Emms, head of the Commercial Unit of Syngenta Vietnam.

These programs focus on bringing world-standard farming techniques for rice, corn, and coffee growing and technological transfers to local farmers, thus helping them cut input costs, including the money spent on fertilizers and pesticides, and increase revenues and profits.

Luckily, since these programs were successfully implemented, Syngenta’s sales  have also been rising, with 10-20 percent annual growth and growth of almost 1,000 percent over the past decade.      Swiss medical firms are also carrying out their CSR tasks in many other ways, mostly by sharing their knowledge with local communities.

Novatis Vietnam, whose main purpose is conducting and managing medical research, has included Vietnam in its “Global Development Program” which focuses on drug quality and safety for patients globally, said Louis-Georges Lassonnery, chief representative of Novatis Research Vietnam.

The company, which has just a few employees in Vietnam, has also launched trials for 10 international medical studies across many fields in Vietnam.

"The mother firm, which invested some $9.3 billion out of $56.7 billion total revenues for research in 2012, conducts about 100 or 150 similar programs worldwide, and Vietnam has 10 of them, a very big of the world's share," said Lassonnery.

It also had 520 local doctors trained to become licensed medical investigators in 2012, and 460 others received international certificates to be experts in biostatistics as of April 2013.

Roche Vietnam has also launched similar programs, including a continuous medical training and knowledge exchange program, which it worked closely with local medical universities to establish in order to enhance the capacity of local doctors, especially those in remote areas.

The firm is planning to introduce a program called Pink Ribbon for local patients with a high risk of breast cancer this year after the program was successfully kicked off internationally, said Nguyen Trinh Thuy Trang, communication manager of Roche Vietnam.

Trang also said that the company wants to invite Tuoi Tre Newspaper to work as a local partner on a program to raise awareness for the program.

SGS Vietnam, the world’s biggest inspection and certification firm offering specialized business solutions, has three expats and 800 Vietnamese employees working for it from only one personnel, the firm's foreign CEO, in 2012.

SGS is training almost all of its workforce including management positions, and then lets the trained Vietnamese staff run the Veitnam's branch of the Swiss firm.

The firm also offers on-job training courses on modern working styles for its laborers.

Offering on-job training courses is an advantage Swiss firms hold over their international competitors, said the Swiss ambassador.

This is something Holcim Vietnam is doing quite successfully, as its CSR program, a 3-year training course launched in 2001 for future cement technicians in Kien Luong District in Kien Giang Province, has been fruitful, said Carol Lim, HR director of Holcim Vietnam .

The program has so far received 156 fresh intakes, and has 105 graduates. It has provided 83 employees for the Hon Chong Cement Plant, which is run by Holcim, 13 of which were promoted within three years of beginning work.