Forum mulls social responsibility centre to boost growth

The Salalah Social Responsibility Forum has called upon business houses to take steps to engage with the communities to empower them and develop need-based programmes for social welfare. It sought the setting up of a ‘social responsibility centre’ under the umbrella of the Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OCCI) in various wilayats to facilitate development and provide credit facilities for micro, small and medium enterprises. It also urged the financing agencies to play a far bigger role in development. The forum was held under the auspices of His Highness Dr Al Khattab bin Ghalib al Said at Millennium Salalah Resort on Sunday with the participation of representatives from the large, medium and small corporate houses. The event organisers were Salalah chapter of the OCCI and Al Roya. In his comments, HH Dr Al Khattab al Said stressed on the need of promoting local development through the adoption of programmes that fulfil the economic, social and humanitarian aspirations of the country. He called for coordination between different stakeholders to build a prosperous and active nation, which thereby can contribute to the overall development of society. The forum called for due recognition to the companies which are adopting the best practices in implementing the social responsibility projects. It sought to include social responsibility in the conditions of granting government tenders to companies, as well as impressing upon the large companies having profits of more than RO 5 million annually, to allocate a fixed percentage of the profits towards social responsibility programmes and projects. Linking social responsibility programmes with local value-added projects is important to accelerate the use of modern technologies to achieve smart sustainability. For this, smart solutions need to be applied along with support to researchers in the field of social responsibility so that they can come out with better ideas to promote social responsibility programmes. Shaikh Husein bin Hatheeth al Bathari, Head of the OCCI in Dhofar Governorate, said the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is creating the conditions for a more developmental and societal reality. He said the community-based programmes were helping the authorities to implement projects and programmes aimed at supporting various groups in Dhofar. “It includes families, persons with disabilities, scholarships and employment, as well as supporting some associations and civil society institutions. These are the efforts that are needed to achieve sustainable development programmes that serve the interests of all,” he said. Hatim al Taie, Editor-in-Chief of Al Roya and General Supervisor of the forum, highlighted the close links between social responsibility and sustainability. “Social responsibility is the process of social investment for companies, especially private sector companies. CSR is important to support the government’s development efforts,” he said.