Promoting The Training Of CSR And Labor Relations In Chinese Enterprises In Burma And Kampuchea

On 17-19 October, the special training of CSR for Chinese funded enterprises, which was co operated by industry organizations in Burma and China, was successfully held in Yangon, Burma, to promote the training of CSR and industrial relations.

This training event was co sponsored by China Textile Industry Federation, Burma Chinese business association, ETI, GIZ and SmartMyanmar, and was strongly supported by the Chinese Embassy in Burma and the German Embassy in Burma.

The training is based on the "bilateral cooperation and innovation joint action framework" of the two governments of China and Germany to carry out the "social and labor standards for textile and garment industry in Asia" project, and the specific implementation actions of People's Republic of China Ministry of industry and information technology on the overseas promotion of CSC9000T (textile and garment enterprise social responsibility management system).

In May 2018, the China Textile Industry Federation launched the first training on the same subject in Burma with the joint British Trade Organization and Smart Myanmar.

Burma is becoming a hot spot in many foreign invested factories.

The top-level design of the "one belt and one way" initiative and the Sino Burmese economic corridor have brought important development opportunities for Sino Burmese garment industry cooperation. In recent years, the trend of China's investment in factories in Burma is becoming more and more obvious.

According to the preliminary statistics of the economic and business department of the Chinese Embassy in Burma, 60% of Burma's clothing enterprises belong to foreign capital while Chinese enterprises account for 60% of foreign-funded enterprises.

At present, there are more than 300 Chinese invested enterprises in the textile and garment industry in Burma, employing more than 300 thousand local labor force.

For Burma, China is not only a source of investment in the textile and garment industry, but also an important source of raw materials and intermediate products. It is also becoming a consuming country of textile and clothing products in the country.

China and Myanmar are linked by mountains and rivers, bilateral relations are stable, industry complementarity is strong, and they have the natural advantages of cooperation in developing textile and garment industry.

At the training meeting, Yan Yan, director of the office of social responsibility of the China Federation of textile industry, Xie Guoxiang, the economic and Commercial Counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Burma, the commercial counselor KatharinaSpiess of the German Embassy in Burma, and Liu Ying, President of Burma chamber of Commerce of China, fully affirmed that the Chinese garment enterprises have made important contributions to Burma's social and economic development while expanding their business.

First of all, the Chinese Chamber of Commerce of the Burma Chinese Chamber of Commerce welcomes the business visit of the China Textile union one bank. Burma Chinese enterprise chamber of Commerce, as the first professional industry association established in 2015, has taken important responsibilities for the healthy development of the member enterprises, especially in recent years, attracted by the factor cost advantage of Burma, and more and more Chinese enterprises have invested in Burma to invest in Burma. However, facing the local laws and regulations, customs and habits, enterprises are facing huge cross cultural communication challenges and social responsibility risks. One of the important duties of the chamber of commerce is to introduce advanced management experience and solutions for the member enterprises, especially the mature experience of self-discipline in the industry of China Textile Industry Federation. The visit of the China Textile Association Social Responsibility office is of great significance.

In his speech, Yan Yan introduced the social responsibility building work of CSR office since its inception in 2005 to enhance the construction of corporate social responsibility ability and promote information disclosure. It is responsible for the construction of social responsibility in a high standard, multi-level and whole industrial chain. It persists in "responsibility management and green development" to enhance the international competitiveness of the supply chain.

The implementation plan for overseas promotion of CSR management system CSC9000T has basically taken shape. The China Textile Federation is committed to strengthening the promotion and guidance of Chinese enterprises in Burma in the future to strengthen the social responsibility construction of China's textile and garment industry, and expects to form a normalized cooperation mode.

Xie Guoxiang, China's economic and Commercial Counsellor's office at the federal Embassy in Burma, attended the meeting and delivered a speech. The cooperation between China and Myanmar in the field of social responsibility has milestone significance in promoting the construction of the "one belt and one way" and the Burma economic corridor. The Chinese textile and garment industry has international competitive advantages. Chinese enterprises invest in factories in Southeast Asian emerging markets such as Burma, fully excavating the cost advantages of Burma's elements, and also digesting the domestic surplus production capacity, promoting the domestic advanced experience and technology. It is a win-win cooperation. It is hoped that the cooperation between the two sides will continue to deepen and expand the results, further enhance the social responsibility management consciousness and sustainable development ability of Burma Chinese funded enterprises, and establish a responsible and effective brand image.

China and Burma social responsibility cooperation in the textile and garment industry was signed by the China Textile Industry Federation and the Burma Chinese Enterprises Association (MGMA) respectively. According to the memorandum, the two sides will strengthen the awareness raising and capacity building of China's investment enterprises' Social Responsibility competitiveness in Burma, carry out international cooperation on issues related to social responsibility management system, mutual recognition of social responsibility standard system, promotion of social responsibility information disclosure, and related key and difficult issues in the field of social responsibility. The two sides will work together to promote the joint venture's responsibility investment, technology pfer and professional training package under the framework of "one belt and one road" and "Lancang River Mekong cooperation mechanism", and refine the mature experience to promote the development of Burma. In order to institutionalize

Chinese enterprises invest in Burma because they are unfamiliar with local government policies, political laws, cultural customs and so on. They also face enormous challenges and risks. Due to the differences in customs, laws and regulations, habits and customs, religious beliefs and so on, conflicts between enterprises and workers in factories in Burma, especially in Yangon factories, cause frequent strikes and cause great losses to enterprises.

The CSR Office of the China Federation of textile industry began its research on the social responsibility of overseas investment of Chinese textile and garment enterprises since 2016, and formed a special research report on "overseas investment and corporate social responsibility of China's textile and garment industry". This training, the China Federation of Textile Industry Federation social responsibility office and the German international cooperation agency GIZ have held a consultation meeting of various stakeholders in Burma and China's textile and garment enterprises' responsible overseas investment guidelines in Burmese Chinese enterprises.

Vicky Bowman, Burma social responsibility center, introduced the Research Report and research findings of Burma garment industry in detail.

Dr. Liang Xiaohui, principal investigator of the China Federation of social responsibility office, read and shared the findings of research in Burma and other three countries, giving more companies a practical guide to social responsibility in investment decisions.

Raising the sense of social responsibility and ability of Chinese funded enterprises is a concrete action to respond to the call of the Central Committee of the party on "one belt and one road" and to better serve the community of human destiny.

The two day training activities provide a detailed introduction to the latest development trend of CSR in overseas enterprises, gender equality, business environment in Burma, Burma's latest labor law, health and safety, environmental protection and other laws and regulations.

Aiming at the characteristics of the large number of female workers in textile and garment enterprises, this workshop invited Professor Liu Minghui, a responsible official of the China Textile Association, to give a keynote speech on establishing the communication mechanism of factory gender equality, explaining in detail how the enterprise set up the staff communication mechanism to help female workers understand the manifestations, forensic skills, complaints channels and relief channels of employment discrimination, improve the sense of self-protection and protection of rights in accordance with the law, create a good social environment, improve enterprise human resources management, raise awareness of social responsibility, and create an equal employment environment.

Based on the communication and management mechanism of Burma culture, Mr. Feng LAN from SMART Myanmar explained the latest laws and regulations of Burma for the training of Chinese funded enterprises, and set up an effective dialogue and communication mechanism to eliminate crises and deal with potential risks in time.

Gao Yan, a ETI from the British ethics and Trade Organization, publicize the basic code and social responsibility requirements of ETI.

Many representatives of the enterprises who participated in the training said: this training has improved the management level and the comprehensive quality of the managers. The training activity is an important platform and window for learning and drawing lessons from the excellent enterprises in the industry.

Reporters from the Xinhua news agency and the central broadcasting and television station conducted a follow-up report.

The training activities are organized by China Textile Industry Federation, CNTAC, GIZ, CCCC and Kampuchea.

(GMAC) jointly organized and received strong support from the Chinese Embassy in Kampuchea.

Yan Yan, director of social responsibility Office of China Textile Industry Federation (CNTAC), MarcBeckmann, director of SLSG project of German international cooperation organization, He Enjia, President of Kampuchea Textile Association of China (CCCC), Ken Loo, Secretary General of Kampuchea Garment Association, GMAC, and so on, delivered speeches at the training meeting.

The training is "Asian region".

Part of the social and labour standards project (SLSG).

The project is based on the technical cooperation agreement between the Federal Republic of Germany government and the People's Republic of China government, and the "joint action framework for bilateral cooperation and innovation" signed by the two governments in October 10, 2014. It is implemented by the China Textile Industry Federation and the German international cooperation company under the guidance and support of the Ministry of Commerce of People's Republic of China.

One of the objectives of the project is to set up new standards for China's outbound investment in textile and garment enterprises and to share and expand CSC9000T's international market applications.

Located in the core of Southeast Asia's territory, it has unique geographical advantages, and has excellent political and economic advantages. In recent years, it has been a hot spot for foreign investment, and its economy has maintained sustained and rapid growth for many years.

China is the largest investor in Kampuchea, and the three largest industry that China has invested in Kampuchea is the textile and garment industry, mainly clothing and footwear production and processing enterprises. Kampuchea is also the distributing center for processing materials, and Chinese enterprises tend to dominate the dominant position.

Yan Yan said that under the leadership of the China Textile Industry Federation, more and more textile and garment enterprises invested in Kampuchea. They are implementing the national "one belt and one way" initiative, making full use of the two markets and bilateral resources, carrying out pnational operation, upgrading industries and promoting economic and trade cooperation.

Marc Beckmann, director of the SLSG project, introduced the status of the "social and labour standards" (SLSG) project in Kampuchea, and said that since the launch of the SLSG project, including Kampuchea,

Vietnam, China and other countries, in view of the challenges of different styles and cultural conflicts, develop dialogues and communication mechanisms based on multi understanding, and will continue to support dialogue and regional cooperation in various countries, so as to build a responsible and sustainable supply chain for textile and apparel industry at the Asian level.

President He Enjia and Secretary General of Ken Loo also elaborated the preferential policies for Kampuchea textile and clothing investment and the important factors which have great attraction, including preferential policies such as demographic dividend rising, labor cost relatively low, tariff rate, political and legal environment and so on.

At present, there are about about 700000 industrial workers and more than 600 processing factories in Kampuchea. They lack local technology and materials, and the market is highly liberalized, the business environment is excellent, and cross-border investment is active. As an emerging market, it attracts a lot of attention.

We hope to strengthen cooperation with the China Textile Industry Federation and enhance the social responsibility management ability and management level of Chinese funded enterprises in Kampuchea, for Kampuchea.

We must set examples and examples for sustainable development.

Kampuchea is the first Southeast Asian country to accept an agreement with ILO. Its trade union activities are more active and its social responsibility risks are relatively high. In recent years, many Chinese factories have closed and pferred because they do not have timely policies and regulations and social responsibility management requirements.

In order to let participants understand the latest development trend of corporate social responsibility and circumvent the risk of social responsibility management, Dr. Liang Xiaohui, the chief researcher of the China Federation of Textile Industry Federation's social responsibility office, explained the development trend of global corporate social responsibility and the challenge to the Asian textile and garment industry. He also consulted the "guidelines on responsible overseas investment of Chinese textile and garment enterprises". The China Federation of textile industry social responsibility office developed the revised "CSC9000T".

The CSR management system will provide a package of solutions to promote the regulatory management and sustainable development of enterprises.

The impact of compliance management, cultural traditions and trade union organizations is the main challenge for Chinese enterprises to invest overseas. For this reason, the organizers also invited relevant experts and professional trainers Seltik HENG, KIM Pichda and In Meng to explain and apply the labor laws and regulations in Kampuchea, the legitimate establishment and protection of trade unions, and based on Kampuchea culture's communication and cross cultural management mechanism, the protection of female workers and the promotion of women's leadership.

In order to better enhance the asset efficiency of overseas investment, effectively reduce investment risks, enhance enterprise management level, expand cooperation space, expand cooperation potential and sustainable development value, China Textile Information Center signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Kampuchea Chinese Chamber of Commerce Textile Enterprises Association and the Kampuchea Garment Association under the testimony of the Chinese Embassy in Kampuchea.

According to the memorandum, the establishment of strategic partnership between the three parties will enhance the competitiveness awareness and capacity building of Burma's Chinese investment enterprises' social responsibility. They will cooperate in training related topics of CSR management system, social responsibility system, such as CSC9000T's overseas promotion, social responsibility information disclosure, and related key and difficult issues in the field of social responsibility.

On the basis of this, the three parties will work together in the framework of "one belt and one road" and "Lancang River Mekong cooperation mechanism" to promote responsible investment, technology pfer, professional training and other package of cooperation plans between the two countries with responsible and sustainable development, and to refine and mature the experience to promote and replicate.

CSPA advocates and encourages enterprises investing in different cultures and systems to refer to and adopt CSC9000T social responsibility management system for textile and garment enterprises, strengthen cross-cultural management, and support and encourage Chinese funded enterprises to "go out" not only to obtain local legal permission, but also to win local social permits and make positive contributions to the sustainable development of local society and economy.

In 2018, the "one belt and one road" initiative put forward 5th anniversary. In the past five years, China's textile industry has made fruitful achievements, especially in Southeast Asia, such as Kampuchea, which plays a strong supporting role in the construction of local industries, and will have a positive interaction with the pformation and upgrading of the country. The construction of industry social responsibility is a new mission for enterprises to "go out" as a new mission, providing a good dialogue mechanism, mutual benefit and win-win progress.

In the future, the China Federation of textile industry will help Chinese funded enterprises to solve the development challenges of social responsibility, labor standards and environmental protection in the "going out" process by guiding development, system promotion, capacity building, industry network, land support, policy advocacy, international exchange and promotion of experience.