Bank of Valletta is supporting the International Conference on Corporate Social Responsibility, being organised by the Malta Standards Authority to commemorate their 10th anniversary. Geared at representatives from the business community, this conference will be held on 26 November at Hilton Malta.

Bringing together a panel of speakers from the international and local spheres, this conference will be addressing the issue of corporate social responsibility for a spectrum of industries. Following an introduction by the Chairman of the MSA, the conference will be officially launched by the Deputy Prime Minister Tonio Borg.

Practical experiences of CSR implemented at Vodafone Malta, Bank of Valletta, Magro Brothers (Foods Ltd.) and Hilton (Malta) will constitute the main topics of the conference, along with topical speeches by foreign exponents, including the Secretary General at ISO, the Executive Director at the Dubai Centre for Corporate Values, a representative from EU Commission and a representative from ISO TMB. The conference will be closed by the Competitiveness and Communications Minister Censu Galea.

“Corporate Social Responsibility is becoming increasingly more topical as more organisations across all industries recognise that their accountability ranges beyond their shareholders,” said Ing. Farrugia while explaining the choice of the topic for their conference. “The conference will also be addressing the issue of standards, and we are honoured to welcome Alan Bryden, the Secretary General of ISO as well as Pierre Mazeau who will be giving an overview of ISO 26000.”

Addressing the press conference, BOV CEO Tonio Depasquale said that BOV was delighted to be the sponsor of this international conference on Corporate Social Responsibility. “Our sponsorship highlights the importance that CSR has within our organisation,” said Mr Depasquale.

Mr Depasquale announced that BOV is in the process of publishing its second Annual Report on Corporate Social Responsibility. “Last year, when we published our first CSR Annual Report, we had expressed our determination to step up the momentum and continue to align our different functions more closely to Corporate Social Responsibility values. This year we will be reporting further improvements and this underlined our conviction that the more we embrace good CSR practice, the better our organisation will develop in the best interest of all our stakeholders,” concluded Mr Depasquale.

During the press conference, Minister Censu Galea complemented the Malta Standards Authority for their initiative and emphasised on how Corporate Social Responsibilities can help Malta to achieve the goals of industrial growth and jobs strategy as it has the potential to help companies become more competitive. Minister Galea continued that “CSR is also an important factor of our overall objective of sustainable development. CSR matters not just because it makes business sense, but also because it reflects the kind of society in which we wish to live.”