Leading international experts to share thoughts on Corporate Social Responsibility at Dubai summit

The event is supported by Shell, Dubai Development and Investment Authority (DDIA), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Ishtirak.

The line-up of speakers at the prestigious summit includes Rick Little, President and CEO, The ImagineNations Group/Founder International Youth Foundation, USA; Helmy Abouleish, Managing Director, Sekem Group, Egypt; Michael Brown, President, Innovative Resources Group, USA and Mohammed Al Fahim, Honorary Chairman, Al Fahim Group, UAE.

Hussain Al Mahmoudi, External Affairs Manager at Shell, the event's main sponsor, said: "Corporates today have a more vital role to play in society, rather than merely concentrating on wealth creation. Their business goals intertwined with delivering benefits to people, communities and the environment. In other words, commercial success needs to be tempered with ethical values. CSR encompasses economic, environmental and social responsibilities, as these factors are the key drivers of sustainable development."

"By shifting the focus on CSR for all levels of enterprises, the CSR summit seeks to promote values associated with Corporate Social Responsibility, and show how an enterprise-wide policy can raise company profile as well as reflect on profits," added Mahmoudi. "Having practised CSR with concrete results, Shell would like to demonstrate how the benefits of CSR could percolate down to all levels of an organisation, conveying the message that no matter what the size of the company is, there is no substitute to ethical business practices."

The main topics to be examined at The Middle East Corporate Social Responsibility Summit include the obligations and opportunities that corporate social responsibility presents and measuring its cost and benefits, business regulations in the Middle East and the mounting pressure on corporations to account for their environmental and social performance.

Thirty-five eminent speakers will be taking the podium at the Summit to present papers on a broad range of topics. The event will incorporate a pre-Summit workshop titled 'The A to Z of CSR Implementation' will be held on June 5 conducted by Julian Roche, Vice President, MHC International, UK and a post-Summit workshop titled "Ethics Management and CSR" on June 8 to focus on organisational ethics and social responsibility conducted by Santiago Zorzopulos, Manager of Programmes, Dubai Ethics Resource Center, UAE.