Under the First Vice-President’s Patronage: MTN-Sudan Sponsors the 3rd CSR National Conference

The 3rd CSR National Conference, sponsored by MTN-Sudan, was opened yesterday at the Friendship Hall in the presence of First Vice-President, Ali Osman Muhammad Taha. The opening ceremony was also attended by the Minister of Welfare & Social Security, Amira Al-Fadil; the Minister of State for Welfare & Social Security and head of the CSR Higher Committee, Ibrahim Adam; the Governor of Khartoum State, Dr. Abdul Rahman Al-Khidhr; the Head of Al-Majzoub Consultancy Centre, Prof. Ahmed Al-Majzoub Ahmed; Dr. Habiba Marashli, head of the Arab CSR Award; the Director of Egypt Food Bank as well as a number of ministers, experts and representatives of the Arab League.
In a speech delivered by the CEO of MTN-Sudan, Mr. Muhammad Ziaullah Siddiqui, at the opening ceremony, he highlighted the great role played by the Company in the field of social responsibility. He stressed that MTN was not a firm focusing only on doing business, but a company committed to extend its role to include contributions to building and developing the local societies. Mr. Siddiqui stated that attitude was based on the values of the MTN Group which has earmarked a social support fund financed from the company’s net profits.
The CEO also said that as part of the Company’s programs that took into consideration the present economic hardships, MTN-Sudan had decided to stop sponsoring a number of TV entertainment shows and to reallocate the budget of that purpose to be used to support the social support projects. He assured as well that the Company was always keen to be among the parties that attend to social work in Sudan and promised that MTN-Sudan would support all initiatives in that respect.
The CEO’s speech was met with praise from the First Vice-President and with applause from the audience.
On her part, Amira Al-Fadil addressed the opening ceremony and thanked all those who took part in rendering the holding of the conference a success on the march to deep-rooting the social work culture.
The Minister of State, Ibrahim Adam, welcomed in his speech the Sudan guests and the Sufi sects leaders present at the ceremony. He also said that the UN calls for promoting the concept of social responsibility represented in fact an integral part of our Islamic values, principles and traditions.
When Mr. Ali Osman took the floor, he gave a full description of the relationship between the modern concept of social responsibility and the instructions found in the Holy Qur’an and Sunna of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). He stated that the Islamic teachings stressed the importance of cooperation and joint liability as well as safeguarding and rational use of resources.
The Vice-President concluded his speech by thanking the conference sponsors for their role in enabling the conference to be held. It is worth mentioning that MTN-Sudan is the Principal sponsor of the 3rd CSR National Conference which is attended this year by experts and delegations from abroad.