Chairman Zhao Dong of Xiamen Airlines Attends UNGC Board Meeting, Letting the World Hear China's Voice

On March 18-20, 2024, the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) held its Board Meeting, Secretary-General's Seminar, and Annual Summit of Global Commissioners in Tokyo, Japan. As a Chinese board member of the UNGC, Mr. Zhao Dong, Chairman & Secretary of the Party Committee of Xiamen Airlines, together with UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Assistant Secretary-General & Executive Director of the UNGC Sanda Ojiambo, and UNU Rector Tshilidzi Marwala, attended the relevant meetings and put forward strategic concepts and decision-making suggestions on topics such as "living wage" and "climate and environment", and let the world hear China's voice.

The UNGC report "Advancing the Living Wage Agenda" indicates that a "living wage" is an important part of decent work and a cornerstone of development, directly contributing to the realization of multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the promotion of social justice. Zhao Dong suggested making reference to China's successful experience in poverty alleviation and establishing a collaborative mechanism of "government-enterprise-trade union-social organization" to promote all sectors to focus on common goals and bring into full play their respective strengths, so as to realize a virtuous cycle of "government policies, enterprise profits, employee income and quality of life".

At the Secretary-General's Seminar, Zhao Dong continued to propose to UN Secretary-General António Guterres that the 17 SDGs are interconnected, and that the market-based and sustainable realization of the "living wage" goal not only requires the collaboration of government, enterprises, trade unions and social organizations, but also requires the exploration and incubation of a systematic and innovative model. Taking the example of the "photovoltaic sheep" in the Talatan Gobi in Qinghai Province, he lively explained China's innovative "new quality productivity" through the case of "PV + ecological governance + ecological agriculture and animal husbandry", and inspired other countries to jointly explore a more environmentally friendly, economic and sustainable development path. 

At the Annual Summit of UNGC Global Commissioners, Zhao Dong gathered with the heads of 41 regional networks and more than 160 countries around the world, and along with Ms. Solange Ribeiro, Vice-Chair of the UNGC Board and Vice President of Neoenergia, he took questions and exchanged views with representatives from various regional networks and countries for one hour, resulting in a strong atmosphere and lively interaction. He systematically explained Xiamen Airlines' mission of "allowing more people to travel around the world", conveyed its philosophy of "development for the sake of employees, and development relying on employees", and introduced its efforts to realize "double improvement" in corporate benefits and employee welfare with humorous words and vivid cases. All these demonstrated Xiamen Airlines' social responsibility of practicing a "people-centered approach" and sharing the fruits of development with employees, which aroused a warm response from the delegates.

In response to the global "climate and environment" challenges that have attracted much attention, Mr. Zhao Dong brought up that UNGC should push governments to take actions. He said that optimizing the energy structure is the core strategic initiative to address climate change, and that China's development achievements in new energy over the past decade cannot be achieved without the government's scientific planning and effective guidance. He also gave a vivid account of the story about the transformation of beautiful China through his own experience. At the same time, UNGC should also encourage member enterprises to play a leading role in building green value chains, innovating green business models, pushing green production transformation and advocating green consumption by the public, as well as exerting their own influence and supply chains to upgrade the green industry and elevate green development of the whole society.

In addition, in view of the current challenges facing the SDGs, Mr. Zhao suggested that UNGC set up a "Global Sustainable Enterprise Award" to recognize enterprises that have made contributions to the SDGs through positive actions, which will not only enhance the trust and confidence of the global public in UNGC, but also attract more outstanding enterprises to join UNGC, thus encouraging more enterprises to take actions to better fulfill their commitments to the environment and society, and accelerate the realization of SDGs.