ILBF in Effort to Improve Working Standards in Factories

12:00:00 AM | 7/12/2005

VCCI has just offered a Certificate of Merit to Mr. Peter Brew, director of Corporate Practices of the International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF) for his contribution to help VCCI implement the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) project. On this occasion, VIB Forum reporter conducted an interview with him.

Could you give your comments on the role of IBLF to the project implemented by Vietnam Business Link Initiatives (VBLI) under VCCI?

The programme began four years ago when we were invited to look at how the use of chemicals in footwear factories could be improved in order to protect the health of employees. After discussion with a wide range of organisations here, we helped Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) to design the programme to draw up procedures and activities that would create a framework in which condition in factories could be improved and a focus on selection, storage, the use and the disposal of chemical but also we looked at the question of how safety equipment in factories could be improved. Over the past three years we have helped VCCI to experiment with design ideas in factories. So we helped draw up management guides to help manage factories better. We helped with ideas and provided training for factories to help them improve the way they manage factories. All of these have been to learn how to do things well here in Vietnam .

What will the next stage of project focus on, and how?

The next stage of project that we have just agreed is to try and take the knowledge that we have learned and to take it to all footwear and garment factories in Vietnam . This is a big challenge. How do we get factories to voluntarily improve their standard. We are planning to hold discussions with organisations to participate in the entire programme to get them to play their part in persuading more factories to implement better standards. We know no standard should be forced; the question is how to persuade factory managers that they should do it consistently. Part of that would be immense pressure because buyers from the international community are beginning to insist upon better standards. The government here has ruled that factories operating here must operate to acceptable standards. So the next stage is to really take this much wider. But we also already have a lot of experience in looking up the working standards in factories. We are now beginning discussions with VCCI about some other social and environmental issues that would become part of the sustainable development programme for Vietnam . Other issues include methods of factory management, good governance of factories, and good financial management are going to be the next issue that we will be addressing with VCCI. So there has been a series of steps of learning and then developing programmes that have a practical application and then seeing how we can take these programmes to factories. We have the lessons that we learned from the footwear and garment industries. These can be taken to other industries across Vietnam . VCCI’s role is very important in this work. Our other role is that of an international advisory programme. Firstly we bring to Vietnam international knowledge that has been developed but it could also be that we take the lessons learned here and take them to other countries.