Flying ROC flag in Vietnam
For businesses, fulfilling corporate social responsibility in the pursuit of mutual good helps improve their image, benefits their long-term development and even protects the business at crucial moments.
One good example occurred in Vietnam in 2014, when anti-Chinese demonstrations broke out. At the time, some Taiwanese businesspeople were shielded by local residents or their Vietnamese employees, and their factories were spared from theft and the fires set by mobs.
On July 29, Taichung Veterans General Hospital superintendent Hsu Hui-heng (許惠恆) led a volunteer medical team to Vietnam to show his support for the government’s New Southbound Policy.
Through the establishment of volunteer clinics and the exchange of technology for medical treatment, the hospital met the demands of corporate social responsibility and extended the power of its brand to a complex foreign market.
These efforts are likely to help build a positive image of Taiwan as a country of philanthropists among the Vietnamese public.
It is an endeavor that is certainly beneficial to the development of many other Taiwanese businesses in the Southeast Asian nation.
Following an outbreak of anti-Chinese riots in 2014, the Vietnamese government has agreed that Taiwanese businesses should be allowed to fly the flag of the Republic of China to identify themselves, as many Vietnamese people cannot differentiate Taiwanese businesses from their Chinese counterparts.
Taiwanese businesspeople in Vietnam must bear this in mind and make their best effort to fulfill their corporate social responsibilities and give back to local society, as well as to their business partners and customers.
Doing so will make people in Vietnam — as well as other ASEAN countries — understand that Taiwanese businesspeople are working toward a mutually beneficial situation and are not driven merely by profit.
Lee Wan-kuo,
Taichung
Comment on Wu’s remark
At a joint news conference with the Japanese news media on June 30, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) was asked if Taiwan would accept the idea that the US Marines deployed currently to Okinawa could relocate to Taiwan.
The foreign minister answered: “Responsibility to defend one’s own country rests with that country and so there’s no need for the marines to move to Taiwan” (Aug. 2, Ryukyu Shinpo).
A very understandable remark indeed.
But in no time, he added that Okinawa is playing so important a role in maintaining the peace and security of the region that (he implied) the US Marines should stay in Okinawa.
Does he want to say that Okinawa must shoulder all the burdens to defend the region, which of course includes Taiwan?
A selfish and greedy point of view indeed.
Yoshio Shimoji
Naha City, Okinawa
Prefecture, Japan
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