HONG KONG, Jan. 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- On 20 January 2022, the Corporate Governance Asia magazine presented the 11th Asian Excellence Award. Chen Qiyu and Xu Xiaoliang, Executive Directors and Co-CEOs of Fosun International Limited ("Fosun International" or "Fosun" or the "Group") (HKEX: 00656) were both honoured Asia's Best CEO. In addition, Fosun International was awarded Asia's Best CSR, Best Corporate Communications and Best Environmental Responsibility.
The awards recognize entrepreneurs who have demonstrated strong social responsibility and companies that have fully supported the fight against the pandemic.
Corporate Governance Asia is one of the most authoritative corporate governance journals in Asia. It organizes the Asian Excellence Award to recognize companies that excelled in financial performance, corporate governance, corporate social responsibility, environmental protection, corporate communication and investor relations. This year, the 11th Asian Excellence Award is themed on "Resilient Asia". The awards are designed to recognize entrepreneurs who have demonstrated strong social responsibility under the pandemic, companies that have fully supported the fight against the pandemic, and teams that have actively disseminated good ESG stories and promoted global sustainable development.
According to Corporate Governance Asia, the COVID-19 pandemic that has swept the world since the beginning of 2020 has posed huge challenges for companies around the world. Nonetheless, many companies have shown strong resilience and adaptability during the pandemic in mitigating the impact of the pandemic on their business; while some of them were actively responding to the pandemic, supporting the fight against the pandemic, and tiding over the difficulties with the whole society, which demonstrated strong social responsibility and mission.
Corporate Governance Asia pointed out that, Fosun International is one of the companies with outstanding performance during the pandemic, and Mr. Chen Qiyu and Mr. Xu Xiaoliang, as CEOs of a large global private enterprise, have been leading Fosun International to support the pandemic at home and abroad, taking social responsibility and acting as a role model for large private listed companies. In addition, Corporate Governance Asia noted that Mr. Chen Qiyu and Mr. Xu Xiaoliang were awarded Asia's Best CEO in recognition of their contribution to enhancing Fosun International's corporate governance, increasing shareholders' value, driving the Group's rapid growth and building interactive and informative relationships with various stakeholders, including shareholders, investors, and the media.
Chen Qiyu, Executive Director and Co-CEO of Fosun International, said, "We are very honoured to receive several awards from Corporate Governance Asia, including Asia's Best CEO and Asia's Best CSR. The awards belong not only to individuals but also to the entire Fosun team, which are a recognition of the work of the Group. Fosun has always believed in doing the right things, the difficult things and the challenging things facing the current global COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to actively carrying out pandemic relief work domestically and globally, we have also made full use of the Group's health resources to jointly develop the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine with German BioNTech, contributing to the global pandemic prevention and control."
Xu Xiaoliang, Executive Director and Co-CEO of Fosun International, said, "Looking back on the past year, the battle between human-beings and COVID-19 pandemic has become a protracted war with the global outbreak continuing to recur. Fosun is deeply honoured to be able to contribute to the mitigation of the pandemic and enhancement of human health in this once-in-a-century battle between humans and viruses. We are grateful to Corporate Governance Asia for presenting the awards to Fosun, which is a great recognition of the Chinese private sector's contribution to the global pandemic. Fosun is about to turn 30 this year, we will continue to uphold the mission of 'Self-improvement, Teamwork, Performance, and Contribution to Society', and take more social responsibilities, focusing on the environment, society and governance, continuing to create value and give back to the society, and helping to promote the sustainable development of the Group and the society."
Fosun develops business for good, actively disseminates good ESG stories and promotes global sustainable development.
According to Corporate Governance Asia, in response to the pandemic, Fosun promptly activated the wartime mechanism, strengthened organizational action, and took the initiative to undertake corporate social responsibility. Leveraged on its global resource advantages, Fosun has urgently deployed protective materials to aid many countries affected by the pandemic. Moreover, Fosun worked with German BioNTech to develop mRNA COVID-19 vaccine and actively promoted the development of the vaccine, strongly supporting the fight against the pandemic.
Besides supporting the fight against the pandemic, Fosun has always adhered to its original aspiration of "Contribution to Society". While developing rapidly, Fosun leveraged its own industrial advantages to actively give back to the society through philanthropic activities such as the fight against malaria in Africa, flood control and disaster relief, Rural Doctors Health Poverty Alleviation Program, education, culture, and entrepreneurship support, etc. The Asia's Best CSR and Best Corporate Communication accolades presented by Corporate Governance Asia are to commend Fosun's commitment to social responsibility and recognize Fosun's persistence and effort through active promotion and dissemination of good ESG stories. Among them, Corporate Governance Asia specifically appraised Fosun's global anti-pandemic campaign is a wonderful case of ESG communication and that is very worthy of affirmation and reference.
Furthermore, Corporate Governance Asia pointed out that with the global trend of promoting carbon neutrality, carbon emission reduction, the sustainable development of the earth is the common mission of all mankind. Since 2020, Fosun has held multiple meetings to explore issues including carbon emissions peak and carbon neutrality. Although Fosun's member companies, such as Nanjing Iron & Steel, Hainan Mining, Fosun Tourism, Fosun Pharma, etc. have different operating models and needs, Fosun has been taking the lead in promoting its member companies to actively explore and implement suitable solutions for their respective industries. In line with the national "dual carbon" strategy, Fosun established the Carbon Neutrality Committee, setting out its "Dual Carbon" goals, and started to explore implementation approaches with its member companies. Therefore, Corporate Governance Asia presented the "Best Environmental Responsibility" award to Fosun, in recognition of its active contribution to global sustainable development.
About "Asian Excellence Award"
The "Asian Excellence Award" is organized by one of the most authoritative corporate governance journals in Asia, Corporate Governance Asia. It is designed to recognize companies in the Asia Pacific region that have excelled in corporate governance and corporate leaders who have made outstanding achievements in the field of corporate governance. The organizer inspected thousands of companies in the Asia Pacific region through quantitative evaluation and interviews with investors to comprehensively measure the companies' strengths. The awards recognize companies with comprehensive outstanding performance in financial performance, corporate governance, corporate social responsibility, environmental protection, corporate communication and investor relations in the past year. The award-winning companies of this year's 11th Asian Excellence Award also include China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, China Overseas Land & Investment, CNOOC, PetroChina, Shui On Land, Sino Land, Sun Hung Kai Properties and other well-known companies in the Asia Pacific region.
About Fosun
Fosun was founded in 1992. Fosun's mission is to provide high-quality products and services for families around the world in health, happiness, wealth and intelligent manufacturing segments. Fosun International Limited is a global innovation-driven consumer group that has been listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (stock code: 00656.HK) since 2007, with total assets of RMB778.9 billion (c. US$120.6 billion) as of 30 June 2021. Fosun International ranks No.459 on the 2021 Forbes Global 2000 List.
