(CSRwire) Singapore - The Centre For Corporate Social Responsibility (CCSR) Singapore is pioneering an initiative to launch the First Asia Pacific Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Seminar Series in Singapore on 12th and 13th July 2004 and which will be opened by Professor Tommy Koh.

The event will mark several milestones as the event has attracted support of some 20 over supporting partners mostly Non Government Organisations (NGOs) and is believed to be the largest gathering of like minded CSR Organisations in the region where some come from as far as America like Centre for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) and Europe like Sprit in Business and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). It also has the support of the British High Commission in Singapore.

The conference will feature amongst other things a Youth Forum where the future of CSR lies and to allow youths to start early networking and understanding regional developments to foster comradeship and understanding with one another and which can only enhance the CSR movement regionally and for the future. The Centre is working on youth exchange projects regionally and with Singapore Management University, National University of Singapore and Singapore International Foundation to ensure the continuity of the momentum that will be built up from the conference.

The Highlight of the conference will be the launch of 10 Asia Pacific Centres for CSR who will form an Asia Pacific CSR Group consisting of members from Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Singapore and Thailand who are resolved to heighten regional co-operation and understanding in the field of CSR. This will ensure the integration of efforts that are now undertaken by individual countries in their endeavor to promote CSR and allow CSR to reach greater heights through regional co-operation and dialogue. The launch and signing of a Memorandum of Understanding will take place at a gala dinner to be held on 13th July 2004 followed by a meeting of the 10 Centres on 14th July 2004 to map out its future.

The launch of the centres marks the high point of the conference theme namely Spirit of CSR-Time For Action. The Spirit of CSR enables the various stakeholders to come from diverse and even contrasting backgrounds yet able to promote a common desire to make the world a better place through the encouragement and practice of CSR. The coming together of the 10 centres in one united front signifies the spirit which breaks down all barriers physical geographical or otherwise and shows resolve to put into action and on a collaborative and regional basis the many deliberations ideas and thoughts of CSR. This heralds an important step for the individual organisations which are at different levels of maturity and some who have in fact formed recently to join hands in this effort. We believe more will join this grouping in time to come.

The Conference also will also bring together Brand names like Swiss Re, Readers Digest, British Petroleum and Coca Cola all of whom support the CSR Initiatives globally. Papers will be presented on the need for CSR by Corporations and why the time for action is not tomorrow but now.

Conference participants and supporters are also drawn from the United Nations Global Compact, World Bank Institute, World Wildlife Fund and Transparency International all of whom play key roles in the development of CSR Globally and which both our Centre and the Asia Pacific CSR group will work closely with.

From Singapore there is also support from professional bodies and interest groups like the Law Society, Institute of Public Accountants and the Singapore Environmental Council all of whom will play a pivotal role in allowing companies to see CSR from their perspective and hence allow them to better appreciate the regulatory framework which exists or that supports CSR and its development. There will also be discussions on need for Standards in CSR and the use of CSR Index as drivers of CSR.

Last but not least the conference will be a precursor to ASrIA's annual conference on Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) which will be similarly held in Singapore from 15th and 16th July 2004 and where such SRIs are a key driver to encourage the practice of CSR within a company. Participants of both conferences will be given incentives, information which is available on our website. ASrIA also being a partner organisation to the event.

The event which will be held in Shangri-la Rasa Sentosa will also be the first attempt to hold such an event in an idyllic setting but we believe that the atmosphere will contribute to whole sprit that we hope to capture.

Details of the seminar are as follow:
Date: 12 - 13 July 2004 (9am - 5pm)
Venue: Shangri-La Rasa Sentosa, Singapore
Price: Main Event: SS$800 (for non-members) / S$680 (for members);
Early bird registration by 8 June 2004: S$680 (for non-members) / S$600 (for members)
Youth Forum: S$450 (for youth in tertiary institutions)

Registration form can be found in our website at www.centreforcsr.org.sg

The Centre hopes that in bringing CSR to the doorstep it can not only heighten awareness of the CSR Movement regionally but to motivate more corporations in addition to our Centre's members like SingTel, SGX, Readers' Digest, Deloitte & Touche and Microsoft to contribute to the growing need to recognise CSR as a important part of a companies growth strategy and to ensure sustainability of the business, community, and the environment.

For enquiries, please email to:
Overseas participants: conference_overseas@centreforcsr.org.sg
Local Participants: conference_sg@centreforcsr.org.sg
Youth Forum: conference_youth@centreforcsr.org.sg
Sponsorship: justin.wee@centreforcsr.org.sg

Event managed by: CSR International Pte Ltd
(Tel: 62237875, Fax: 62237028)

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