21 December 2005 - A new United Nations initiative – “The Global Compact” – was presented to the Belarusian public and mass media during a conference held yesterday at the Minsk International Educational Center.

Representatives of ministries and agencies, the Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus, international organizations, enterprise associations and businessmen participated in the conference entitled “UN Global Compact Initiative: Opportunities for Building Partnerships of Government, Business Community and Civil Society”. Heads of state enterprises and private businesses shared their own experience in corporate social responsibility.

“Complexity and acceleration of globalization in today’s world require new types of solidarity, partnerships and engagement to promote sustainable development. The Global Compact is a framework to be able to help in this process”, UNDP Deputy Resident Representative, Levan Buadze, said at the conference.

The Global Compact’s overall goal is to advance the principles of responsible corporate citizenship so that business can be part of the solution to the challenges facing the societies at the global and local levels. There are almost 3000 participating companies in 85 countries with national networks established in 50 countries.

“Joining the Global Compact can bring an enterprise not only moral satisfaction, but also higher competitiveness and better market positioning, greater weight in negotiations, as well as a higher level of loyalty of partners and clients”, UNDP Programme Officer, Ludmila Istomina, added.

The world largest corporations, as well as hundreds of smaller enterprises participate in the Global Compact. They are all united in recognizing the importance of corporate social responsibility and undertaking respective actions. For instance, participation in the socially responsible business movement has become almost binding for the countries joining the European Union. The EU proclaimed 2005 a “Year of Social Responsibility”.

“The concept of the Global Compact is not yet very well known in Belarus. It is a new topic for us. So we are grateful to the UN/UNDP Office for assisting us in developing corporate partnerships for the sake of tackling the social issues which are important to this country”, Belarus Deputy Minister of Economy, Andrey Tur, said.

Enterprises and organizations sharing the corporate responsible citizenship values are invited to take part in the Global Compact Initiative implementation in Belarus. They can obtain the detailed information about the Initiative on the web-site http://un.by/ru/undp/gcompact/, and fill out the participant’s application form on-line.

For further information please contact the UNDP Programme Officer, Ludmila Istomina, at telephone number 227-45-27, or UNDP Public Information Assistant Vladislav Khilkevich, at 227-38-17.

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