Advanced Agriculture

An expert tests the water ratio of corn at a modern agricultural service center in Gaoqing County, east China’s Shandong Province, on May 29.

The center was jointly built by Gaoqing and the Sinochem Group. So far, it has served more than 200 producers, effectively improving local agricultural plantation and operation. about 61.5 percent of enterprises lacked trained professionals in the field, and 32.3 percent surveyed said that they needed a better understanding of local cultures and legal systems in order to better carry out their corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts.

“Actually, China’s SOEs have been actively contributing to local economic development and environmental protection in the past few years, but their efforts have been little known to the public,” said Zhong Hongwu, Director of the Research Center for Corporate Social Responsibility at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

“Cross-cultural communication matters a lot in the overseas CSR efforts of central SOEs, especially in community service,” Zhong added. “It also matters to enterprises’ daily operations as they employ workers from different cultural backgrounds.”

The report suggests closer cooperation with local charitable organizations to facilitate communication for more efficient CSR operations. It also calls for an evaluation system of the overseas CSR performance from the StateOwned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, the country’s SOE regulator.