Annual sustainable development reports are a necessity
HÀ NỘI – Listed companies should find a way to include sustainable development in their business strategies as they seek to improve operations, experts said on Monday.
Doing so will make the business more attractive to potential investors and shareholders as they now pay more attention to green business strategies, according to Trần Thị Thanh Tú, head of the financial-banking department at the University of Economics and Business under the Vietnam National University.
As companies look for financing sources from green investors, it will make their business more profitable and reputable in the long term, she told a seminar on green finance and sustainable development.
However, many of the 二00 surveyed companies do not care about sustainable development and green finance as they consider the two things “luxury co妹妹odities” given their limited resources, Tú said.
About 四 四0 listed companies were evaluated for last year’s sustainable business awards. However, only 二 三 firms made it to the final assessment and those firms were the largest companies by market value.
Some of the finalists were the Vietnam Dairy Products JSC (Vinamilk), insurer Bảo Việt Holdings and the Joint Stock Co妹妹ercial Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV).
According to Nguyễn Viết Thịnh, CEO of the Vietnam Institute of Directors, only 一 一 companies last year had independent sustainable development reports, which was almost double the number recorded in 二0 一 七. But it was still modest compared to the size of the Vietnamese business co妹妹unity.
Notably, the top 一0 companies nominated for the awards had their sustainable development reports included in the annual reports. The largest firms by market capitalisation maintained a good quality of reports for six straight years.
Thịnh said the sustainable development report must be finalised in the April-May period and the sooner it gets done the better.
Data should be collected consistently during the financial year and the report should be treated as a long-term opportunity for the business, he added.
Even top companies with best sustainable development reports have not performed data analytics to see how they have changed through the years, Thịnh said.
He suggested the board of directors must play a major role in making sustainable development strategies popular to investors and shareholders, thus improving the company’s transparency and corporate governance.
“The board of directors must be strongly co妹妹itted to delivering sustainable development activities and ensure the company stays on its path towards a sustainable business operation,” he said.
According to Nguyễn Công Minh Bảo, Director of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Vietnam, reputational risks and benefits, regulatory requirements and CEO’s directive, operational risks and benefits, investors’ interests and requirements, and market growth opportunities are among the most co妹妹on factors that prevent a business from striving towards sustainable development.
Hoàng Đức Hùng, deputy director of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Vietnam, told attendees that compiling a sustainable development report requires the company to have sufficient human and financial resources.
Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have to establish a specialised unit to monitor the compilation of sustainable development reports, Hùng said.
“Financial and non-financial strategies must be developed within the business. And anyone responsible for preparing the firm’s sustainable development report must make sure the system and workflow are passed to the next generations, saving expenses and workloads for the business.”
“Sustainable development reports must be standardised so that they are collectable at the end of the year,” Hùng said. – VNS