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Latest CSR Report framework - Official Announcement of GRI Standards in Traditional Chinese

Publish time:2017-06-13

The Business Council for Sustainable Development of Taiwan (BCSD) and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), together with the Taiwan Stock Exchange Corporation (TWSE) and others, cohosted the press conference to announce the GRI Standards in Traditional Chinese on June 6, which is one of the first translated versions of the GRI Standards. It will effectively help Taiwan companies understand accurately the GRI Standards in detail and improve the quality of nonfinancial information disclosure in Taiwan.
 
According to TWSE, the GRI Guidelines have been adopted by many large businesses around the world, and the regulation in Taiwan requires CSR reports be prepared in compliance with the latest version (which is currently the G4 Guidelines). GRI launched the latest version in October 19, 2016 and named it the GRI Standards. BCSD was in charge of the translation to traditional Chinese. Representatives from TWSE, academia, accounting firms, and various industries were invited to form a sufficiently diverse Stakeholder Translation Review Committee. After six months of discussions, the work was completed, and the result was reviewed and confirmed by GRI as the official traditional Chinese version which was announced to the public at the press conference.
 
The TWSE also noted that information disclosure in the latest standards is still based on the G4 Guidelines. While not containing major changes, the GRI Standards now provide more precisely defined terms and descriptions in order to provide effective assistance for report writers and to improve consistency and clarity throughout a report. In addition, the GRI Standards are presented in a modular framework and contain three universal standards and 33 topic-specific standards. The standards are divided into three sections. The first section, titled "Requirements", provides the requirements of mandatory disclosure; the second section, titled "Recommendations", provides information that companies are not required to disclose but are encouraged to do so; and the last section, titled "Guidance", is intended to help organizations understand and apply the standards. The modular design makes the GRI Standards easier to update and to expand to include the latest sustainability reporting issues and information.
 
In addition to opening speeches by BCSD Chairman Cheng-Cong Huang, FSC Vice Chairman Tien-Mu Huang and TWSE President Chi-Hsien Lee, the press conference welcomed Bastian Buck, Director of the Reporting Standard Department at GRI, to promote understanding and application of the GRI Standards. GRI provided a table of comparison between the G4 Guidelines and the GRI Standards, and BCSD helped translate this information into traditional Chinese for Taiwanese users.
 
Companies should take serious sustainability issues faced by the world, and establish long-term strategies, targets, and develop different performance benchmarks. The introduction of the GRI Standards makes report writers focus more on major topics for businesses and discloses in-depth sustainability management mechanisms regarding certain issues. The change will not only improve details disclosed in the reports and the quality, but also strengthen sustainable competitive advantages for companies. The traditional Chinese version of the GRI Standards is available at http://www.bcsd.org.tw/press/1483.