WBCSD Annual Review 2006 NEW.qxp - Sustentabilidad.uai.edu.ar

these challenges, competitive advantage will come only to those companies that
go beyond traditional business approaches.
The Business Role New York
Dialogue, 2006.
In 2006, the Business Role FA completed the scoping phase of its Action Plan
and held meetings in Paris, Milan, New York and London. The focus has been
on delineating the boundaries between business, government and civil society.
The Focus Area’s Core Team agreed to examine the dilemmas associated with
the fundamental roles of business to:
• Create wealth through economic growth
• Create jobs
• Pay taxes
• Use resources efficiently
• Spearhead innovation
• Invest in technology research and development
• Be a source of FDI in developing countries.
Throughout the year, it studied various trends and gathered data to create an
objective view on the contributions business has made during the past two
decades. Cases were collected to illustrate both the positive contributions and
challenging issues.
The team clarified current and evolving interactions between business and
governments, and between business and civil society. Stakeholder maps at
global and regional levels were being drafted.
Moving forward
The results of this work will be the basis of successive short publications in 2007.
The challenges highlighted by the publications will be used as topics of
discussion through the series of continuing dialogues. Three major dialogues
were confirmed for 2007 – Hong Kong, Oslo and Brussels – in addition to a
series of regional dialogues. These will help us collect and map the views of
various stakeholders and use these as inputs to the advocacy messages
developed by the core team.
In 2006 the FA took the first steps to engage the capital markets by designing a
model to show the interface between a member company and financial players.
In 2007, the FA will hold a series of workshops to find ways for business to
communicate on sustainable development with the capital markets. Out of these
workshops the FA will develop a practical guidance document for financial
officers on how to better communicate with capital markets.
BP, Promoting local development
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