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What's the recipe behind a successful multinational? Effective management, abundant capital and strong leadership. As to China's largest oil and gas producer, the answer lies in bringing benefits to local people.
Ever since 2003, the Venezuelan subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) has been doing public good for local residents.
The company invested around 500,000 US dollars to build a 30-hectare cassava plantation for native farmers in a 30-home Indian village named Caeco Seco, said Wang Shaoxian, a retiree of CNPC who served then as the vice president of the firm.
"We improved the soil property, adopted suitable fertilizers and hired experts from our mother country to direct the farming activities," Wang said.
The plantation helped boost the earnings of local people, who previously made a living by selling sand to adjacent building sites, according to Wang.
The subsidiary also helped renovate schoolhouses, built water towers and dug wells to ease water shortage in the arid area.
Along with increasing efforts in public good, the subsidiary's crude yield in its oil field also kept surging with the help and support of local authorities and residents.
The daily output rocketed eightfold to 40,000 barrels by the end of 2000 from the figure of 1998, according to data from CNPC.
Social responsibility and public good have played an important role for CNPC and lessons can be learned if Chinese enterprises want to establish themselves on the global stage.
As of 2011, CNPC and its subsidiaries have invested nearly 300 million US dollars for public good in 30 countries including Sudan, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Syria and Chad, statistics from the company showed.
More than two million people have benefited from the construction of hospitals, roads, bridges, schools and farms in the local areas.
The company's efforts have also included securing residential water supply in arid regions, enhancing facilities in orphanages and nursing homes, setting up education funds and giving aid to disaster-stricken areas.
Globally, CNPC has provided more than 100,000 jobs for local workers during its overseas expansion, speeding up its globalization and taking on its social responsibilities.
Before his death last year, Sun Bo, former vice president of PetroChina Company Limited said one of the basic concepts of CNPC is to pursue mutual benefits and win-win results in its business operation.
He once told colleagues, "We always take into account both corporate profits and benefits of local people."
It is important for China-based multinationals to shoulder social responsibility with their local partners, which will not only contribute to local economies but help create a healthy corporate image, said Guo Huimin, vice president of the University of International Relations.
His words are echoed by Jin Zhanming, professor of School of Economics and Management of Tsinghua University, who thought Chinese companies, as newcomers in the multinational community, should draw lessons from their western counterparts on corporate globalization to seek mutual benefits and win-win results, Guo added.
With jumping revenues helped by local support, the CNPC's Venezuelan subsidiary has started something fruitful, which has left a sweet taste all round. "After the plantation, we built a cassava processing factory for our local friends," Wang said. "Our products are popular in local supermarkets."
Unconventional natural gas has become a global hotspot. It is changing the pattern of the world energy. Shale gas will become one of the three energy resources in the next 20 years. Read More >
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