Published July 22nd, 2009 by Future Atlas
Chinese Investment Gets Responsible?
At a USAID seminar today, Dr. Deborah Brautigam of American University said that Chinese companies are beginning to be interested in conditionality standards — benchmarks such as the Equator Principles that are meant to guide global companies toward better handling of social and environment issues in emerging markets.
Chinese companies are often seen as unconcerned with such environmental and social matters in their operations in Africa, potentially undercutting progress toward getting other actors to operate responsibly.
Brautigam said that Chinese companies are beginning to study such principles; publicly traded companies are aware of the reputational risk of being seen as bad actors, and of their potential vulnerability to activism.
Meanwhile, today’s news suggests how far Chinese business has to go. A graft query in Namibia has brought up the name of the son of China’s president, Hu Jintao. The Chinese government has reportedly responded by blocking access to news coverage of the affair — directly contradicting the kind of openness and transparency which global markets will ultimately demand from Chinese business, and which Chinese companies will themselves need to be fully competitive.
(Image courtesy Social Technologies)