Dubai Customs has received the "Middle East Business Leaders Award 2012" for the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) category. The award is organized by the "Leaders Magazine International Malaysia" and "My Events International".
The honoring ceremony took place at the Armani Hotel in Burj Khalifa on May 15 with the presence of His Excellency Ahmed Fadhil Shams El Deen, the Consul-General of Malaysia in Dubai, His Excellency Khalil Al Khonji, Chairman of GCC Chambers of Commerce of Commerce Federation, and a large number of business leaders and officials from government, semi-government and private organizations in the UAE and the region.
From Dubai Customs' part, the ceremony was attended by Mrs. Feryal Tawakul, Executive Director of Community Affairs and Government Partnership, Mr. Ali Al Maghawi, Director of Airports Operations, Khalil Saqer, Director of Communications department, Mrs. Maryam Al Shamsi, Manager of Government Partnership, and Mr. Rehan Uddin, CSR Expert at Dubai Customs.
Following the receipt of the award from HE Khalil Bin Abdullah Al Khonji, Chairman of GCC Chambers of Commerce Federation, Mrs. Feryal Tawkul said that the organizing committee granted Dubai Customs the CSR Award in light of the community initiatives and activities it carried out and their conformity to the award’s main criteria together with Dubai Customs' leadership interest in CSR and the results obtained from such initiatives, which contributed to activating this aspect.
"The CSR has become an integral part of Dubai Customs' strategy pacing with the government's trend in this connection”, she pointed out.
"Dubai Customs considers taking interest in the CSR a seamless part of its continuous development strategy through adopting the Green Customs Initiative emanating from the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) in collaboration with the World Customs Organization (WCO)”, she said.
"Dubai Customs plays a key role in combating piracy and counterfeit in order to protect man's life and the society from harmful substances together with its major role in maintaining environment balance, controlling illegitimate trade particularly trading in endangered fauna and flora species and raising the society's degree of awareness about the same as well as its role in developing the communities and encouraging its employees, clients and stakeholders in sustainable CSR”, she added
"In recent years, Dubai Customs' social initiatives focused on the employees and clients' rights and transparency of treating them through the Client Charter. The Department cares for all society segments. For that reason, it launched many community initiatives, for example regularly visiting patients and people with special needs, cleaning beaches, disseminating awareness of the risks of endangered animal trading, cultivating volunteerism and charity culture among the employees, leveraging public awareness of Dubai Customs' role in preserving Intellectual Property Rights and the risks of using counterfeited materials, in addition to other initiatives targeting women, such as the formation of Al Raieda Women’s Committee, launching Best Working Mother Award and inaugurating the Childcare Center at Dubai Customs.” she maintained.
Furthermore, Mrs. Tawakul clarified that the Department is keen to implement transparency while interacting with its stakeholders by issuing the annual sustainability reports, which is based on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Guidelines, in which the Department achieved the GRI Level A; the highest level of transparency.
In the last few years, Dubai Customs bagged numerous international, regional and local awards in recognition of its major role and leadership in the CSR field, which comprises four main pillars; the environment, community, clients and employees.