Survey results show that 11.5% are in the poor category, 28.5% below average and 27.5% in the average category.

By Jason NG

LOCALLY listed corporations are far behind international standards when it comes to implementing corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices, with nearly two-thirds of those surveyed ranking between poor and average categories.

Bursa Malaysia Bhd's CEO Datuk Yusli Mohamed Yusoff said the 2007 CSR survey undertaken by the exchange revealed that listed companies showed poor understanding
and lack of awareness in incorporating CSR policies and disclosures in their daily business operations.

"Only 4.5% of respondents surveyed are in the leading category of which 67% are multinational corporations," he said at a media briefing to announce the survey results yesterday.

Of the nearly 1,000 listed companies, about 520 firms responded to the survey at the end of last year, of which 200 were selected for the sampling size.

Bursa's head of CSR, research and external affairs, Dr Jothimani K Muniandy said the importance given to CSR by some companies was disheartening as those who
responded were not even committed in filling out the forms.

"We were quite disappointed that even some of the large corporations did not even respond to the survey. We would have expected that for these companies to respond to the survey would have shown their commitment towards CSR," Yusli added.

A breakdown of the results show that 11.5% are in the poor category while 28.5% and 27.5% are in the below average and average categories, respectively.

The responses were based on the disclosures during their operations in their financial year 2006 to 2007 and measured based on marketplace, workplace, environment and community dimensions.

Yusli said the construction sector exhibited little or no engagement in CSR at all.

"High risk companies scored the best. These include companies in industries that are more regulated because of the business and their inherent social and environmental impacts such as tobacco, alcohol and gambling," he said.

Bursa Malaysia recently commissioned CSR Asia to undetake, co-develop and analyse the responses for the report which would act as a precursor to setting up a local
sustainability and CSR index.

Yusli said Bursa Malaysia is one or two years away from setting up the index in line with other developed markets such the US, Australia and the UK.

"The survey is one of the steps that we need to take to start compiling a database on what our companies do in terms of CSR. We will need to work with some organisations
that have some experience to create this index," Yusli said.

On disclosures by directors, he said it is crucial that compa-nies have a mindset shift, and need to start from the top management, directors and senior managements.

"They have to walk the talk, if they want to be transparent with that type of information which are well documented in the corporate governance code," he said.