On November 20, He Wenbo, Secretary of the Party Committee and Executive Chairman of China Iron and Steel Industry Association, Zhang Tao, former Director of the Party Construction Bureau and the Working Bureau of the Chamber of Commerce of the State owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, and Tang Zujun, member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee of the Association, Yang Wenqin, a researcher in the responsibility cloud (Zhong Hongwu, acting as professor of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and secretary-general of the China Social Responsibility 100 Forum), jointly released China’s first blue book on social responsibility in the iron and steel industry – the Blue Book on Social Responsibility in the Iron and Steel Industry (2022) (hereinafter referred to as the Blue Book) in Beijing. Qu Xiuli, member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee, Vice President and Secretary General of the Association, presided over the conference.
The conference was co hosted by the China Steel Council and the Responsible Cloud Research Institute, and hosted by the China Social Responsibility 100 Forum. The theme of the conference was “practicing responsibility and taking responsibility to forge a steel backbone”. It was held in the form of “offline+online”. Wang Dechun, Deputy Secretary General of the Steel Association, Feng Chao, Secretary of the Party Committee and Director of the Metallurgical Industry Economic Development Research Center, Xiong Yuping, Vice President of China Metallurgical Newspaper, and representatives from iron and steel enterprises and relevant units attended the conference.
“This is the first time to study and record the development, practice, progress and achievements of social responsibility performance from the perspective of the industry, which is of great pioneering significance.” He Wenbo pointed out in his speech that the Blue Book not only fully recorded the major historical responsibilities that the steel industry has always shouldered, such as implementing the major national strategic deployment, actively meeting the needs of economic construction, serving the people’s livelihood, improving the ecological environment, and overcoming poverty, but also wrote a series of achievements that a wide range of enterprises have actively explored and practiced the corporate responsibility model with Chinese characteristics.
According to He Wenbo, firstly, the steel industry fully fulfilled its responsibilities as a pillar industry of the national economy, making important contributions to the sustainable and healthy development of the national economy; Second, earnestly implement the concept of green development and actively implement the national goal of “double carbon”. At present, 38 enterprises have taken the lead in completing the publicity of ultra-low emission transformation in the whole process, 24 enterprises have completed the publicity of partial ultra-low emission transformation, 94 steel production enterprises have entered the list of green steel plants of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, established the Low Carbon Work Promotion Committee of the steel industry, and released the Carbon Neutralization Vision and Low Carbon Technology Roadmap of the steel industry; Third, always attach great importance to the harmonious development of enterprises and society. Steel enterprises always adhere to sharing the development achievements with the society, reflecting the responsibility and responsibility of important pillar industries of the country; Fourth, we attach great importance to win-win international cooperation and have contributed to the prosperity and development of the “the Belt and Road” countries. In addition, steel enterprises have also taken the lead in social responsibility management. According to the survey, nearly 90% of steel enterprises have formulated or plan to formulate the “Fourteenth Five Year Plan” for social responsibility, 89% of member enterprises manage key issues of social responsibility through multiple ways, 96% of steel enterprises take the “consideration of their own sustainable development” as the main driving force to carry out social responsibility work, and nearly 90% of steel enterprises actively promote subordinate enterprises, especially listed companies, to fulfill social responsibility
In his speech, Zhang Tao highly praised the new development, new look and new achievements of the construction of social responsibility in the steel industry, and believed that the release of the Blue Book could effectively promote the formation of consensus on social responsibility in the industry, promote enterprise self-improvement, industry self-regulation, government support and social co construction, whether it is to improve the overall development quality of the steel industry or support and promote the improvement of national governance, Both have important practical significance and long-term historical significance. He summarized the specific significance of this action with “six advantages”: first, it is conducive to grasping the overall social contribution and development requirements of the industry; Second, it is conducive to service coordination to promote the modernization of national governance, highlight the social responsibility contribution of the industry, and achieve social governance coordination and national governance transformation with industry construction as an important focus; Third, it is conducive to the improvement of the whole social responsibility construction system; Fourth, it is conducive to improving the value of corporate social responsibility, leading enterprises to achieve higher quality and more sustainable development along the right direction of responsibility; Fifthly, it is conducive to highlighting the comparative significance of industry value contributions and enhancing the self-confidence of industry personnel in performing their duties; Sixth, it is conducive to expanding the service value field of industry organizations and comprehensively improving the working image of the Association.
“Of course, we are also soberly aware that there are still some shortcomings in the social responsibility work of iron and steel enterprises, such as the construction of responsibility capacity needs to be strengthened, the proportion of enterprises that issue social responsibility reports needs to be improved, etc. Under the requirements of high-quality development of the industry, our social responsibility work still has room to improve, and it still needs the joint efforts of the majority of iron and steel people, continue to struggle, and then climb to the top.” He Wenbo emphasized.
Yang Wenqin interpreted the Blue Book on behalf of Zhong Hongwu. It is understood that the preparation of the Blue Book was officially launched on July 6 this year, and has gone through five stages, namely, project initiation, questionnaire survey, case collection, case review, and book completion. The Blue Book is divided into two parts: an introduction and a case study. Among them, the general introduction systematically combs and analyzes the requirements for the form of social responsibility in the steel industry, the progress in practice, and the management and exploration of social responsibility in the steel industry, and clarifies the direction and focus of the steel enterprises in the future; The case part includes excellent cases of 20 iron and steel enterprises, providing valuable experience for the iron and steel industry and enterprises to explore and deepen their social responsibility.
