The most authoritative corporate governance magazine in the Asia Pacific region,Corporate Governance Asia, has recently presented the 11th Asian Excellence Awards. Chen Qiyu and Xu Xiaoliang, Executive Directors and Co-CEOs of Fosun International, were awarded Asia’s Best CEO by the magazine.Corporate Governance Asia has conducted an interview with Chen Qiyu and Xu Xiaoliang and the article was recently published with the headline of "Fosun Strives to be a Global Leader in ESG". Besides mentioning Fosun's active promotion of sustainable development of its industry chains and its outstanding performance in ESG ratings in the article, the article also pointed out that Fosun, as a large global private enterprise, has always been actively undertaking corporate social responsibility. In the future, Fosun will continue to uphold its original aspiration of developing business for good and "Contribution to Society", consolidate the ESG concept, continue to create value and give back to the society. The full text of the article is as follows:

Fosun Strives to be a Global Leader in ESG

As ESG has become a global mainstream topic, various regulatory bodies have actively introduced corresponding regulations and guidelines to encourage listed companies to attach higher importance to ESG governance and responsibilities. Capital markets and investors are paying more attention to a company’s exposure to, and management of, ESG issues and increasingly incorporating ESG considerations into core benchmarks and their investments.

As a global corporate citizen rooted in China, Fosun International Limited (HKEX: 00656) has diligently shouldered corporate social responsibilities while developing its businesses. In recent years, Fosun achieved remarkable ESG performance. On 6 September 2021, Fosun International was selected as a constituent stock of Hang Seng ESG 50 Index (top 50 large-to-mid cap). Hang Seng ESG 50 Index aims at capturing the overall performance of Top 50 ESG leaders with relatively high market capitalization listed in Hong Kong. The inclusion of Fosun International reflects the recognition by Hang Seng Indexes Company Limited in Fosun International’s exceptional performance in sustainability. Besides, its MSCI ESG rating was upgraded to AA, holding a leading position in the industry; its Hang Seng Sustainability Rating was A. Fosun International has been included as a constituent stock of the Hang Seng Corporate Sustainability Benchmark Index for two consecutive years, which includes the top 20% of Hong Kong-listed companies in the Hang Seng Composite Index in terms of corporate sustainability. In addition, its S&P Dow Jones Indices ESG score and FTSE Russell ESG rating were improved significantly, which are higher than the average rating of global peers.

In October 2021, CLSA has published the first ESG deep-dived research report on Fosun International. The report has pointed out that Fosun’s ESG mission is clear: actively address the growing demand for corporate sustainability. Fosun has a rigorous structure and policy to ensure business alignment with ESG goals.

ESG has been a part that Fosun greatly valued and actively participated in for many years. It established the ESG Committee under the Board of Directors to assist the Board in providing direction on and overseeing the development and implementation of the ESG initiatives of the Group in 2019. For daily ESG management, the Group has set up an ESG management committee and an ESG working group to assist the ESG Committee in implementing the Group’s ESG initiatives and ensure the establishment of appropriate and effective ESG risk management and internal control systems.

Fosun, as a global large-scale private enterprise, has always actively shouldered its social responsibility. This year Fosun is about to enter the 30 years of establishment.  Xu Xiaoliang, Co-CEO of Fosun International, said, “Fosun, which is about to turn 30 this year, will stay true to its mission of ‘Self-improvement, Teamwork, Performance and Contribution to Society’, and uphold the aspirations of ‘Co-entrepreneurship, Multiplier Growth and Contribution to Society’ to actively create commercial values while leading the governance and development of the Company. Fosun will also continue to shouldering more social responsibilities, focusing on ESG, constantly creating value and giving back to the society, as well as helping to promote high-quality development of the society and common prosperity.”

Full support of the battle against the pandemic,Fosun/BioNTechCOVID-19mRNA vaccine brings a gleam of hope towards the end of the global pandemic

In fact, Fosun performed outstandingly in the fight against the pandemic. Since the outbreak of the pandemic in January 2020, Fosun has successively delivered medical supplies that were urgently in need to over 30 countries and regions at home and abroad. Fosun was the first batch of enterprises to actively respond to national calls. When China was hit the hardest by the pandemic and supplies were scarce, Fosun swiftly deployed global resources and delivered supplies to China immediately to support the domestic fight against the pandemic. At the beginning of 2020, Wuhan was in lockdown and anti-pandemic supplies were urgently in need, Fosun immediately initiated a global medical supplies deployment plan. It only took Fosun four days to transport 50,000 protective suits from Germany to Wuhan and other anti-pandemic frontlines. This was the first batch of large quantities of protective supplies to be transported from overseas to China. Leveraged on its strong globalization capabilities, Fosun has transported protective suits, surgical masks, ventilators, etc. from 23 countries. These strategic supplies at critical moments have provided strong support for China to overcome the pandemic.

As the overseas pandemic became more serious, Fosun quickly launched the second phase of action to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic by sending more supplies to key affected countries and regions. For instance, in April 2021, the pandemic prevention and control situation in India and other countries and regions deteriorated. Fosun Foundation joined hands with its friendly enterprises to swiftly donate medical supplies that were urgently needed in India such as oxygen concentrators, ventilators, and surgical masks, etc., to India. 

 Air protective medical supplies to overseas countries with rapid pandemic outbreak

In addition to leveraging its global resources advantages to urgently deploy protective materials to assist countries affected by the pandemic, Fosun also partnered with BioNTech, a German biotechnology company, to jointly develop the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine (COMIRNATY^®, also known as BNT162b2), which has been put into use in Hong Kong SAR and Macao SAR in March 2021, and arrived in the Taiwan region on 2 September 2021, which was subsequently put into use, playing an active role in the pandemic prevention and control in Hong Kong SAR, Macao SAR and Taiwan region.  

Besides, as a global innovation-driven consumer group, the COVID-19 nucleic acid test kit, which was self-developed by Fosun’s subsidiary, was certified by the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA), the EU, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA). In addition, it has been officially listed on the Emergency Use List (EUL) of the World Health Organization (WHO), which will facilitate the use of the kit by the United Nations and other international organizations fighting COVID-19.

“All these were made possible with Fosun’s accumulation of global industrial resources and relentless dedication. Fosun is deeply honored to be able to contribute to the prevention and control of the pandemic and to the restoration of people’s health in this once in-a-century war between humans and the virus.” Xu Xiaoliang added.

Fosun for Good, Shouldering More Social Responsibilities

In addition to devoting great efforts in the fight against the pandemic, Fosun has also leveraged its industrial resource advantages to carry out philanthropic work such as rural doctors, culture, education, entrepreneurship support, etc., bringing a ray of light into people’s lives.

Chen Qiyu, Co-CEO of Fosun International, said, “Fosun always uphold its original aspiration of ‘Self-improvement, Teamwork, Performance, and Contribution to Society’. It actively shoulders corporate social responsibilities while developing its businesses.  On the one hand, Fosun has been focusing on deepening the development of the family consumption industry and promoting common prosperity in the society through high-quality development; on the other hand, Fosun has been leveraging its industrial advantages in areas such as Health, to coordinate regional development, rural revitalization, and poverty relief work.”

 Rural Doctors Program

Rural Doctors is one of Fosun’s key initiatives to promote common prosperity. Under the guidance of the National Health Commission, Fosun Foundation launched the “Rural Doctors Program” at the end of 2017. In the past four years, the program has covered 73 counties across the country (all formerly national-level poverty-stricken counties), supported approximately 24,000 rural doctors, benefited 3 million grassroots families.

2021 marked the first year of rural revitalization. Through the “Rural Doctors Program”, Fosun helps rural doctors to better perform their duties, mitigate the problem of villagers returning to poverty due to illness, assist in rural revitalization and promote rural prosperity. In addition, Fosun will continue to help the underprivileged through education, culture, employment and other public welfare programs and contribute to narrow the income gap between regions, urban and rural areas, and residents, endeavoring to achieve common prosperity in the society.

Looking globally, Fosun has been working unremittingly to build a “malaria-free world” for over 15 years. Since 2005, Fosun Pharma has supplied more than 200 million vials of Artesun^® (artesunate for injection) to the international market and saved more than 40 million lives of patients with severe malaria, most of which are African children under five years old.

With the global trend of promoting carbon neutrality, carbon emission reduction, the sustainable development of the earth, Fosun has held multiple meetings to explore issues including carbon emissions peak and carbon neutrality since 2020. Although Fosun’s member companies, such as Nanjing Iron & Steel, Hainan Mining, Fosun Tourism, Fosun Pharma, etc. have different operating models and needs, Fosun has been taking the lead in promoting its member companies to actively explore and implement suitable solutions for their respective industries. In line with the national “Dual Carbon” strategy, Fosun established the Carbon Neutrality Committee, setting out its “Dual Carbon” goals, and started to explore implementation approaches with its member companies.

As per the CLSA ESG deep-dived research report published in October 2021, CLSA commented that: Fosun attaches great importance to climate change mitigation and energy management. Risk-management frameworks ensure that member companies such as Nanjing Iron & Steel and Hainan Mining have planned and implemented energy-saving and GHG-reduction initiatives, based on their specific sector characteristics. Fosun has also taken reference from the global frameworks such as the Taskforce for Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).

CLSA further indicated that: with renewed ESG reporting in the last couple of years, and a concerted top-down effort to maintain strong business practices, Fosun is actively working to improve its overall ESG strategy. This is most clear in areas such as climate risk and opportunity disclosures, diversity and talent development, and commitment to addressing numerous SDGs with corporate initiatives.

“With the global trend of promoting carbon neutrality and carbon emission reduction, the sustainable development of the earth is the common mission of all mankind. Fosun will continue to actively cooperate with its member companies to enhance our ESG strategies and performance, especially in the areas of ‘Dual Carbon’, biodiversity, energy conservation and consumption reduction, and actively promote the sustainable development of the Group. As a highly globalized company rooted in China, Fosun strives to be a global leader in ESG. Fosun will remain true to its original aspirations to unremittingly provide high-quality products and services for families all over the world, and create greater value for the society.” Chen Qiyu concluded.