On 5 June, the Eighth International CSR Forum and Ceremony to Announce the 2012 "GoldenBee CSR China Honor Roll” was held at Empark Grand Hotel in Beijing. The conference under the title “Promote Social Responsibility to Promote (the) Chinese Dream” was jointly organised by WTO Tribune, the Sino-German Corporate Social Responsibility Project, CSR Europe, the Council for Better Corporate Citizenship (CBCC), the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the Global Compact Network China, GoldenBee Management Consulting Co., Ltd. and the International Research Center for Social Responsibility & Sustainable Development of Peking University. Over 400 participants from governments, international organisations, NGOs, academia, companies and the media attended the international conference and shared their experiences and future trends in CSR.

During the opening ceremony, moderated by Mr. Yao Shenhong, Director General of the China International Center for Economic and Technical Exchanges and President of China WTO Tribune, welcoming remarks were delivered by Mr. Liu Yuhua, Deputy Director General of the Department of WTO Affairs of the Ministry of Commerce of the P.R. China, Mr. Peng Huagang, Director of the Bureau of Research of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), Dr. Jürgen Steiger, Deputy Country Director of GIZ China, Mr. Jan Noterdaeme, Senior Advisor of the European C’homme’pany for CSR Europe, Mr. Johnny Kwan, Senior Vice President of BASF Group and Mr. Cheng Duosheng, Executive Director of the Global Compact Network.

Subsequently, trends and examples of CSR promotion in China, Germany, the USA, Japan, Sweden, Spain and the UK, as well as the China GoldenBee CSR 2020 initiative were presented. Mr. Rolf Dietmar, Project Director of the Sino-German Corporate Social Responsibility Project, introduced “The Latest Development and Future Trends of CSR in Germany”. Mr. Dietmar highlighted the proactive approach and specific initiatives of the German government such as the National Sustainability Strategy, the National CSR Forum, the National CSR Strategy and Action Plan for CSR, as well as the guiding principle “CSR Made in Germany”. These initiatives provide guidance for companies, especially SMEs, for implementing CSR. The involvement of key societal players and the coordination of CSR activities by the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs additionally assure a successful implementation of CSR in Germany.

The panels in the afternoon sessions focused on “Social Responsibility and Future Corporate Management”, “Energy Efficiency and Sustainable Urban Development” and “Global Standards and Multinationals’ Social Responsibility” in the first, as well as “The Contribution of Green Power to the Construction of a Beautiful China”, “Supply Chain Management and Sustainable Development”, as well as “GoldenBee Enterprises and Best Practices of Social Responsibility”, in the second session.

Afterwards, a ceremony to grant new members of the GoldenBee China CSR Council and to announce the “2012 GoldenBee CSR China Honor Roll” was held. In total 52 companies with exemplary CSR measures were awarded in ten categories.

The conference highlighted best practices in CSR promotion of governments and in companies in China as well as internationally and promoted exchange and discussion among the participants. Even though the panelists underlined the great achievements in the area of CSR in the past years, the need for further improvements, especially in following an integrated approach to CSR, was emphasised.