UITIC Congress correct to focus on social responsibility

18/11/2013
The current president of the International Union of Shoe Industry Technicians (UITIC), Yves Morin, said at the start of the eighteenth UITIC Congress, which took place in Guangzhou from November 13-16, that it was correct for the event to have social responsibility as its main theme.

Mr Morin, who is chief executive of French research and training organisation CTC, said consumers now have very high expectations of the companies from which they buy goods. “They demand greater transparency,” he said, “and want to know how and where the products were manufactured, which substances were used, and what the working conditions were.”

He said social responsibility was the subject of many of the discussions at the event, with the ISO 26000 standard, which provides guidelines for social responsibility, providing an important backdrop.