World Bank wants social responsibility from firms

"Social responsibility is not a question of charity, it's a question of enlightened self-interest. It's an issue of how we're going to keep our planet stable so that your businesses survive."

James Wolfensohn, president of the World Bank

The president of the World Bank urged a high-powered assemblage of US and European corporate leaders to show more social responsibility as they expand global dealings in an increasingly impoverished world.

James Wolfensohn told dozens of CEOs attending a two-day forum that their companies' futures depend on the stability of developing nations, which are expected to account for almost all the world's population growth in the next 50 years.

"Social responsibility is not a question of charity, it's a question of enlightened self-interest," he told the TransAtlantic Business Dialogue on Thursday. "It's an issue of how we're going to keep our planet stable so that your businesses survive."

The annual gathering convened at a downtown hotel under heavy security, with anti-globalization protesters marching through downtown as night fell Thursday to protest the group's pro-corporate agenda.

Hundreds of protesters marched loudly but without incident from the headquarters of Boeing Co to the Tribune Tower.

While the violence that accompanied similar protests in other cities was absent, some marchers taunted police with large cutouts of doughnuts and shouted various anti-police chants.

Police and federal agents sealed off several blocks, banned downtown parking, patrolled the Chicago River in boats, roamed streets on bicycles and scoured the hotel grounds with bomb-sniffing dogs.

Mayor Richard Daley had pledged that protesters would not shut down the city or cause major disruptions as they had at other global trade gatherings, particularly a violence-plagued summit in Seattle in 1999.

Wolfensohn, whose organization handed out more than US$19.5 billion in development loans last year, said trade and agricultural subsidies are far more important in shaping countries than development assistance. "Trade gives developing countries the opportunity to develop themselves," he said in a keynote address.

But wealthy countries and corporations must develop responsibly, he said, and follow through on commitments to build capacity in developing countries' government and businesses.

Third World development was an agenda item at the conference, although the talks, which also involved government representatives, were private.

Other targeted priorities for the business officials: improving regulatory cooperation between Europe and the US, re-establishing sagging public confidence in capital markets, and ensuring that tougher customs security since Sept. 11 don't harm business.

"If we do allow vastly increased regulations on security to stifle two-way trade, particularly across the Atlantic, then in effect we will be allowing Osama bin Laden to win this battle," said Charles Masefield, vice chairman of Britain's BAE Systems PLC and the meeting's co-chairman.