Social Responsibility of the Private Sector

The main paper was presented by Dr. Al-Jazi Al-Shubiki, ommented on by Dr. Hussein Al-Hakami, Dr. Yousef Al-Hazeem and Mona Abu Suleiman, and the debate was moderated by Dr. Khaled Al-Radiaan. The paper indicated that the social responsibility of the private sector means the commitment of companies, institutions and commercial centers to contribute to sustainable development to improve the standard of living of people in a manner that serves the goals of trade and achieves the interests of society. Among the benefits of social responsibility in the private sector is that the companies that achieve social responsibility have a higher profitability rate of 18% than those without social responsibility programs.

The paper pointed out that among the challenges facing social responsibility in the private sector are lacking a unified framework or reference, lacking information and data, weak coordination, follow-up and evaluation.

The paper also emphasized that one of the priorities of social responsibility for companies and profit institutions in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is to focus on the qualification and training programs. This is to bridge the gap between education and labor market outcomes, support small and medium enterprises, and research centers and coordinate with charitable institutions to implement charitable and social projects.

The comments explained that social responsibility is the responsibility of every individual working in the institution and not the responsibility of senior management, as sometimes happens when blame is put on a certain department by some staff believing that they have nothing to do with social responsibility.

Some contributors argued that the concept of social responsibility jumped to the surface in the last ten years and made good achievements. Social responsibility needs a strategic government intervention represented by the Ministry of Labor and Social Development, chambers of commerce, the Capital Market Authority, and the Zakat and Tax Authority.

The contributors also confirmed that Vision 2030 contributed to changing the perception of social responsibility and set some standards, but the economic situation may not allow the comprehensive change that we need.

The contributions made on the main paper indicated that the private sector must work with the government relevant authorities to confront a number of many social and thorny problems that affect in one way or another the course of economic and developmental life in the Kingdom, and attempt to find solutions.

The contributions also indicated that many officials in the chambers of commerce prevented the private sector from carrying out its social responsibility in the past decades. This was justified by saying that the government does not need (their alms). This situation continued until the interest in social responsibility in the private sector disappeared in its broad sense, and the private sector continued to disburse sums of money as charitable donations.

Some contributors also saw that the issue of social responsibility is suffering from a significant ignorance, not from the private sector but even from the government itself, which did not create the legislative and practical environment so that the companies and bank can compete for providing services to the society.

Among the most important recommendations were the following:

• There is an urgent need for conducting specialized studies that define the concept of social responsibility in order to avoid overlapping with the concept of “charity work.”
• There is a need to measure the volume of actual participation by the companies and determine the volume of expected participation.
• It is necessary to create the legislative, regulatory and practical environment that guarantees the competition of all private sector companies to provide their services by reformulating all laws and regulations related to social responsibility.
• Providing all administrative, legal and incentive facilities for companies that have made strides in their social contribution, which can motivate them to increase and maintain their participation.
• Appreciating anyone who contributes their experience and time to social responsibility, with directing and managing all volunteers in social responsibility programs, to prevent them from being used in the name of volunteering in programs that are not related to social participation.
• Urging companies to improve the quality of their primary work by being in accordance with a self-driven social responsibility, by not failing to perform their original duties towards society.
• The necessity of playing the expected role by the chambers of commerce, by establishing modern legislations that are compatible with the social, economic and cultural aspects of the Saudi society. This effort has to be in line with the directions of the Saudi Vision 2030 in building a high-level approach for social responsibility.