Bangladesh, Economy of Bangladesh, Top News

In this modern era, business entities are not only responsible for their own development. They are equally responsible for the country’s economic condition. If corporate houses understood its responsibility towards the society and gave constant effort towards building a stronger economy, the country would have been developed more.

Corporate social responsibility is the process where the self regulations are treated as an integral part of the corporate business model. Corporate citizenship, sustainable responsible business, social performance and corporate conscience – all refer to corporate social responsibility. In the process of self regulation, corporate policies are adopted. These policies help the business to be monitored. Apart from this, self regulation also aims to bear the responsibility of the company’s actions, as well as highlight the positive impacts on the community, consumers, employees, environment, and other associated people and stakeholders. 

In Bangladesh, corporate social responsibility’s evaluation refers to the cultural norms of the business, whereby it had brought positive impacts to the society, community, culture and the environment. Most big companies of Bangladesh set up a CSR team. This team is responsible for planning the goals, strategies and formulating policies for the CSR program. It also set funds and budgets for the program. The social philosophy of the business with a clear objective and working towards a positive direction are the determinants of these programs. CSR programs, taken by these companies generally cover issues such as community and education development, healthcare and environment.

Comprehensive CSR methods have been developed by several Bangladeshi top corporate houses including Navana Group, Pran Group, Beximco Group. Under the program, companies provide prominent facilities such as villager empowerment, building public schools, medical and sanitation facilities to the underprivileged communities. Additionally, in a bid to make villagers more self reliant and assist in knowledge about business operation, vocational programs are organized. For instance many local pharmaceutical companies focus on the health aspect at community levels and provide treatment and up to date medical checkup facility.

Apart from these, most of the NGOs work on organizing awareness programs related to education and health in the distant and remote villages. Many big companies organize programs jointly with the NGOs. In order to bring the socio-economic development on fast tract, the government should extend its supports to the joint efforts undertaken by the corporate houses and NGOs. Doing so would help improving the strategic thinking, expertise and manpower skill.