OREANDA-NEWS. December 19, 2012. The capital of Karelia is a venue for the international seminar Practical Proposals on Creation, Implementation, Support and Improvement of Corporate Social Responsibility and its Coordination with Other Management Systems. The seminar was organized upon an initiative of the Information Office of the Nordic Council of Ministers in St.Petersburg.

Representatives of the state authorities and business from Karelia and Northwest regions, partners from Nordic countries, and experts take part in the seminar.

The seminar is organized within the scope of the project on promotion of the corporate social responsibility implemented by the Nordic Council of Ministers in which northwest regions of Russia and Nordic countries participate.

Corporate social responsibility, or sustainable responsible business is a form of corporate self-regulation integrated into a business model and a process with the aim to embrace responsibility for the company's actions and encourage a positive impact through its activities on the environment, consumers, employees, communities, stakeholders and all other members of the public sphere.

Minister of Labour and Employment of Karelia Ivan Skrynikov addressed the seminar on behalf of the Government of the republic.

He has mentioned special value of the seminar for development of social and labor relations in our region and has emphasized that the Government of the republic will support the efforts of entrepreneurs in pursuance of principles of corporate social responsibility.

First Vice-Chairman of the Legislative Assembly of the Republic of Karelia Nikolai Makarov, Deputy Minister of Economic Development of the Republic of Karelia Dmitry Kislov, Chairman of the Trade Union Association of the republic Ilya Kosenkov, head of the Corporate social responsibility promotion project, Vice-Rector for development of Murmansk Humanities Institute Larisa Bilous and President of the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (employers) of the republic Yuri Ponomarev also welcomed the seminar participants.

Speaking of the importance and significance of the seminar, Yuri Ponomarev pointed out the following:

– Distribution of corporate social responsibility is considered very important direction of activity: this is sustainable development of the economy, social harmony, partnership between the Government, business and public organizations.

President of the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of the republic has emphasized that work in this direction is conducted in Karelia – the tripartite agreement between the Government of the republic, the Trade Union Association of the republic and the Union of Employers is implemented, many large enterprises of the region pursue the policy of corporate social responsibility.

However, there's definitely a room for improvement. Thus, Yuri Ponomarev has cited an example: in Nordic countries 90 percent of enterprises pursue the principles of corporate social responsibility.

– Today in Karelia and in the Northwest we're trying to launch signigicant work to increase corporate social responsibility making use of experience of the Nordic countries, – said President of the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (employers) of the republic.

The seminar goes on, its participants intend to discuss practical issues related to introduction of principles of corporate social responsibility in the organizations and enterprises, prospects of promotion of corporate social responsibility as business-strategy in Russia, and to exchange experience.