The Regional Director for Support to Investment and Competitiveness, Arnaldo Machado, said this morning in Ponta Delgada that corporate social responsibility represents the voluntary inclusion of social and environmental concerns in the daily operations of organisations and the interaction with all sectors of society.

Arnaldo Machado spoke on behalf of the Regional Secretariat for the Economy at the opening of the seminar "Change and Innovation for New Lifestyles," reinforcing the idea that social responsibility requires the adoption of strategies, improvement of the living conditions of employees and the search of solutions for community problems.

Hence, it is an innovative source of added value and wealth generation, bring benefits and competitive advantages for both the organisation and society, underlined the Regional Director.

At the occasion, Arnaldo Machado stressed that social responsibility will positively contribute to the community by managing the company's social and environmental impacts in order to ensure and enhance market competitiveness.

For the Regional Director for Support to Investment and Competitiveness, good social practices are a factor that differentiates and brings added value to the business sector.

Thus, it is desirable to promote the areas whose social, economic and environmental can be effective, enhancing value creation to all parties without jeopardising the future. Moreover, the government official defended the development of intellectual and creative skills of people so that we may be able to create a more ethical, equitable and socially responsible society.

The growing awareness of the international community for the creation of social responsibility measures has had impact in the Region as evidenced by the emergence of business initiatives focused on sustainable change and the development of people with the ultimate goal of building a better world.

Concluding, the Regional Director also restated that ethics and social responsibility are clearly a challenge in coming years and may contribute to the survival and sustainability of organisations.