The FINANCIAL — Marriott Tbilisi hosted live presentations on the Corporate Social Responsibility of leading Georgian companies last week.
The FINANCIAL — Marriott Tbilisi hosted live presentations on the Corporate Social Responsibility of leading Georgian companies last week. The event organized by The FINANCIAL invited key speakers from the American Chambers of Commerce, Global Compact Georgia and companies who consider CSR to be an integral part of their business.
AmCham, Global Compact, Bank Constanta, Geocell, Dexus, Radisson Blu Iveria and Sheraton Metechi Palace all summarized the CSR activities they have implemented in 2012. The FINANCIAL published a special edition on CSR.
“Our goal is to raise awareness of CSR in the media and society as there is still a lack of awareness,” said Lali Javakhia, Head of the Marketing Department at The FINANCIAL.
“We want to underline the CSR issue and help companies have full understanding of what CSR really comprises. It is about the useful activities conducted by businesses for the companies themselves, as well as for society and the environment at the same time. This is a very pressing issue for many leading corporations worldwide, where CSR is considered a mechanism of sustainable development for business and society as well as for overcoming economic crises. Only two companies – Aversi and Bank Republic – were ready to do a presentation on CSR in 2007 when The FINANCIAL first started conducting such meetings. Nowadays, more companies are involved in CSR and participated in the live presentations, a fact we are proud of,” she added.
Representatives of the companies believe that such meetings are useful for them as they are able to share information about their CSR activities with society.
“CSR is a relatively new issue for this society,” said Gia Gvaladze, Head of the Steering Committee at Global Compact Georgia. “The companies are probably aware of the principles of CSR, but this is added to by new elements all the time. So it is important to discuss these new elements together with the representatives of the companies and inform society about this. To have requirements of companies, society should be sufficiently informed about CSR. Then the companies will take into consideration these requirements and in such a way will the direction of CSR develop furthermore. I would like to thank The FINANCIAL for being the organizer of an event that is raising the profile of CSR in the country,” he added.
“This has been a very interesting initiative,” said Irakli Kilauridze, Group Founder and Distressed AM Business CEO of Dexus. “Besides the fact that the participant companies are able to be informed about each other’s activities, we are given a chance to inform the media and society about our social activities too,” he added.
“Such events should be held more often, I think,” said Ekaterine Lomidze, HR Manager of Radisson Blu Iveria. “We should learn how to share our experience and ideas with each other. Also we should realize how important CSR is for us. There is an interest in our activities within the framework of CSR from society’s point of view. But relevant information is not given to them. The companies have a new generation in their staff, who have lots of new ideas and who know much more about CSR than we. So we should follow their ideas and innovations,” she added.
“Constanta is participating for the second times in the CSR live presentations conducted by The FINANCIAL,” said Nana Chkhikvadze, CSR Specialist at Bank Constanta. The Bank was the General Sponsor of the newspaper’s edition focused on CSR.
“It is important to share our experience not just with the participant companies, but with those companies who are not represented at the meeting as well. Our example will be encouraging for them. We recommend all companies to be more active in the direction of CSR. We are proud to be the participants of the live CSR presentations organized by The FINANCIAL,” she added.
“I would like such events to be held in Georgia more often,” said Leila Akhmetelashvili, HR Manager at Sheraton Metechi Palace. “As we companies share our own experiences with each other, we learn lots of things from each other as well. I have learnt from this year’s event that more companies have joined us,” she added.
“This event reminds all the participant companies once more that we should work harder in the direction of CSR to present our activities more proudly next year,” said Irma Tskitishvili, Head of the Corporate Communications Department at Geocell. “This meeting also motivates us as through this so many people have thanked Geocell. This encourages us a great deal. I wish for this meeting to be on a larger scale in the future,” she added.
The FINANCIAL gave certificates to all the participant companies for their CSR activities.
