Corporate Social Responsibility has become a business imperative for the world's major companies, as consumers are increasingly concerned about the impact these firms have on such social issues as worker conditions, income inequality, and environmental sustainability.

Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies has also caught up with the trend.

The Shenzhen-based company said it had optimized its efforts in sustainable development in the past year, with fruitful achievements in bridging the digital divide, supporting stable and secure network operations, and promoting environmental protection around the world.

According to the sustainability report released by the company on Aug 11, Huawei built at least 500 base stations in Sri Lanka a year back, enabling internet connections to numerous households, and deployed 50 percent of the wireless base stations and over 70 percent of the LTE networks in Africa to provide better digital connectivity on the continent.

In addition, the company also supported education in Ethiopia and Bangladesh, by providing network access for 50,000 Ethiopian students to learn efficiently, and giving technology training to 240,000 women in Bangladesh, aiming to bridge the digital divide in these less developed countries. However, the company didn't disclose the capital investment for its sustainability development in the report.

Along with these efforts, Huawei also expanded its "Seeds for the Future" program, supporting technology training for more than 15,000 workers in the industry across 67 countries around the world.

The program's expansion comes as the company said it believed that both developing and developed countries are facing a large shortage in skilled technology workers. For example, the European Commission has anticipated a shortage of up to 800,000 skilled technology workers by 2020.

"We invested approximately $100 million in the seed program, but that's worthwhile," said Kevin Tao Jing-wen, chairman of Huawei's Corporate Sustainability Development Committee.

"It is the company's social responsibility to meet societal needs. We've cooperated with local schools to nurture ability, not just to hunt for talent in the marketplace," he said.

"Many of the students came back to work in Huawei and some of them became the CEO of one of our national units. As the saying goes, the most valuable investment is an investment in talent," he said.

The company spent over $1.4 billion in employee benefits in 2015, up over 25 percent compared with a year earlier. And the employee localization ratio outside China reached 72 percent.

With its vision to promote environmental protection, Huawei said it also increased the energy efficiency of its core routers and wireless base stations by 25 percent and 20 percent respectively last year, saving 44.3 million kilowatt-hour of electricity.

cherrylin@chinadailyhk.com