KARACHI: The Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI), the representative of top foreign investors in Pakistan, has revealed the results of its annual Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report 2022. The CSR survey has reaffirmed the OICCI members’ commitment towards supporting the socio-economic development of the communities in which they operate in the country.
In brief the chamber’s CSR Report 2022 reflects the activities of its members who collectively invested over Rs12 billion in 2021-22 (Rs11 billion in 2020-21) on CSR-related works and reached out to around 46 million direct beneficiaries throughout Pakistan.
The OICCI members and their employees also contributed 1.5 million man-hours and partnered with over 280 social and development sector organisations for completing their unique CSR programmes.
President of OICCI Ghias Khan, while commenting on the CSR initiatives of the chamber, remarked: “(The) OICCI members led by example during the Covid pandemic and have also shown their commitments towards mitigating the suffering of the 2022 flood victims by actively participating in relief activities as well as announcing generous commitments of around Rs9 billion, in addition to their CSR contributions of Rs12 billion.
“Besides making financial contributions, OICCI was the first chamber in Pakistan to have organised in March 2022 an international climate conference highlighting the need to take proactive actions to protect the life and livelihood of the people from negative affects of global warming.” Throughout 2022, OICCI members participated in numerous philanthropic projects, divergent from the traditional CSR activities, to show their commitment towards paying back to the society, in collaboration with key social sectors partners, he said.
These social initiatives were focused on betterment of society, including various dedicated programmes to improve the situation in the education, healthcare, livelihood, infrastructural development, and environmental sustainability sectors.
Commenting on the foreign investors’ commitment towards the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, OICCI’s Vice President Amir Paracha stated: “An overwhelming majority of (89 percent) of the OICCI participating members focused on health and well-being of people, and actively supported health- and nutrition-related initiatives through donations to reputable hospitals, medical care camps and health awareness campaigns.”
He added that over 75 percent of the participating members contributed towards quality education by funding for improved primary and secondary school facilities, scholarships, and various vocational training programmes for skills development. Moreover, about two-third of them focused on gender equality to promote women empowerment activities and actively pursued the “OICCI Women” initiative.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023