More firms are advised to adopt responsible business conduct (RBC) to manage risks more efficiently and boost productivity, as this already supports the country’s current initiatives in building organizational resilience in the export industry.
Professor Dynah Basuil, executive director at the Asian Institute of Management Ramon V. del Rosario Center for Corporate Responsibility, said an RBC lens can help shed light on the economic, environmental and social impacts of supply chain disruptions and identify practical options to help build more resilient global value chains (GVCs).
Basuil said the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2023-2028 tends to be internally focused on rebuilding through public-private partnerships (PPP) and foreign investments.
“(It is) important to address them. (Building our) infrastructure is very important for our export industry so that it can be sustainable (and) so we are not adversely affected by the future shocks,” she said during the Usapang Exports organized by the Department of Trade and Industry-Export Marketing Bureau.
Aside from infrastructure, Basuil said key sectors to improve resilience amid global uncertainties are food security, service including tourism, business process outsourcing and healthcare.
She also identified key strategies under the Philippine Export Development Plan including increasing exports in GVCs, food/agriculture and labor-intensive manufacturing; advancing purposive, assertive and forward-looking free trade agreement strategies; and diversifying exports.
Basuil said incorporating RBC and international standards within organizations is “very crucial” especially if the country wants to target labor-intensive manufacturing.
“RBC, if you incorporate it within your organization, will lead to the better treatment of your employees, will become more effective, productive and will lead to increased production,” she said.
Basuil said businesses should not consider adopting RBC as a cost but as an investment that can “reap benefits” for their organizations.
“As you look that way, I hope every time you get a new client or you get a client that actually increases volume as a result of your due diligence, I hope you look at it as a return on that investment you have made rather just thinking it is going to be a cost for me,” she added.
In the same event, Sara Reso, junior policy analyst at the Centre for Responsible Business Conduct of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, said that once RBC systems are established in the business, implementing the due diligence system is important.
“It is just a system that needs reviewing of risks every three years to address the highest risk to ensure no negative impacts (on the business),” she said. “This is about preventing risks where you can and if there is a situation where you cannot, it is providing that access to remedy for any negative impacts.” – Press release
