Kasikornbank- Chengdu (Striking the Business and Society Balance)

Kasikornbank- Chengdu (Striking the Business and Society Balance) The same day Kasikornbank officially opened its Chengdu branch, Mr Banthoon Lamsam, KBank CEO, donated 500,000 yuan to the Association of People with Disabilities to support Ya’An city’s rescue and restoration, due to the Sichuan earthquake on 20 April 2013. The donation quickly caught attention from both Sichuanese and the Chinese central government. Without a single client since the bank was only able to start operating that day, Kasikornbank had already made donation. The first thing the bank decided to do, ahead of conducting its business was to donate for disabled people! “This is Khun Banthoon’s policy in doing business anywhere. That business operation must go together with social responsibilities. We must reach communities that are unrecognized by most people. Especially in China, we must do it with a trustworthy organization and we happen to know the management of that organization.” Khun Joe Horn, Advisor to Kasikornbank’s CEO for China affairs, described the thinking behind the bank’s corporate social responsibility. The bank chose to donate to disabled victims from the earthquake to compensate the lack of aid given specifically to them, while non-disabled people had received sufficient aids from a handful of domestic and international organizations. As we knew the senior managements in this organization, we were certain that our donation would be used for the benefits of the victims. This was not KBank’s first donation in China. In the past 5-6 years, Kbank had:  

In 2008, donated 1,000 survival boxes and 1 million baht cash to Sichuanese earthquake victims In 2007, jointly donated 350,000 yuan with Chang-Ai Foundation to rebuild “Chang-Ai” school in Yunnan, which collapsed after the Sichuan earthquake

From this recent donation, Kasikornbank’s name was praised on many Chinese newspapers and websites for its investment in China.

1 Khun Joe Horn – one of the Thai people who empathize with the Chinese victims 2 Chang-Ai School was the school Kbank jointly built with Khun Joe family’s foundation 3-4 One of the news articles from a Chinese website. Its caption read: “On 23 May 2013, on the occasion of Kasikornbank’s Chengdu branch opening ceremony, the bank also donated 500,000 yuan to the Association of People with Disabilities to support rescuing and restoring damages caused by the earthquake in Ya’An city, Sichuan, on 20 April 2013.” 5 Survival box