CSR in the Spotlight at the Swedish Pavilion

During two days the Swedish success within corporate social responsibility will be discussed in Shanghai. The meeting is a part of the ongoing Sino-Swedish collaboration on CSR.

SHANGHAI, Aug. 12 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Today and tomorrow the Swedish pavilion at the Expo in Shanghai is hosting a forum about CSR. Using Sweden as an example, the forum will show how corporate responsibility and corporate values have been important factors when it comes to giving Swedish companies a good reputation and market advantages worldwide.

• "Today’s forum is an important part of the Sino-Swedish cooperation and yet another example of the fact that China is interested in the Swedish competence and experience within CSR. We are glad that the Swedish pavilion can be used as a platform for such an important conference as this, and also facilitate the future cooperation between our two countries," says Annika Rembe, General Commissioner for the Swedish participation in Expo 2010.  

The forum will bring together representatives from a number of different stakeholders including organizations, government representatives and companies from both countries.

Some of the topics to be discussed include the role of the government in promoting an open and reliable free trade system, organizations and institutions supporting responsible business, and companies taking a lead in corporate responsibility.

• "Swedish companies have been among the first in the world to really understand and incorporate CSR into the daily business. This makes Chinese companies interested in learning more from Sweden about this. Sweden is the only country that has this kind of collaboration with China, so CSR is not only beneficial for us as a country, it also works as a facilitator in our relations with other countries," says Anders Ahnlid, Director General for Trade Policy at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Sweden.  

Invited guests include officials from the institute for International Labor Studies, Ministry of Human Resource and Social Security of China, the Swedish Embassy in Beijing, the Swedish Consulate General in Shanghai, Swedish Trade Federation, as well as company representatives from Bao Steel Group Corporation, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, H&M and IKEA

• "So far everyone has agreed very much on what the opportunities and challenges are for CSR in the future. There does not seem to be any discrepancy between the Swedish and Chinese opinions, which is very interesting. One thing that I think that China could gain knowledge of from Sweden is how to create a good dialogue between management and other personnel. If you manage to create such a dialogue, it becomes easier to solve problems and to get the organization to work together as a whole," says Tobias Fischer, Regional CSR Manager Far East at H&M.  

The Swedish participation at the Expo 2010 in Shanghai is the largest marketing effort Sweden has ever done abroad. The exhibition opened May 1^st this year and will continue until October 31^st. So far more than 1.5 million people have visited the Swedish pavilion, which gives an average of about 20,000 visitors per day.

For more information about the Swedish participation and the pavilion, please visit www.swedenexpo.cn