T

he Denpasar city administration established a corporate social responsibility (CSR) community Thursday to commemorate the 17th anniversary of it signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the administration and corporate representatives.

"The Denpasar Corporate Social Responsibility Community (DCSRC) is not being launched for fund raising or philanthropic reasons but more as a coordination effort for CSR activities in the city," Denpasar Mayor IB Rai Darmawijaya Mantra said on the sidelines at the MoU signing.

"It is also being established to remind all companies about Law No. 40/2007 on the formation of CSR communities."

City councilors, representatives from 30 state-owned and city-owned enterprises and private companies attended the ceremony, which also saw the launch of a website *www.csr.denpasar.go.id* to facilitate the council with corporations.

Rai said around Rp 200 million in CSR funding would be allocated for the city.

"The city administration is responsible for overseeing the coordination of all CSR activities to avoid any overlap and maximise activity potential," he said.

"We are only providing information and data on areas in Denpasar eligible for CSR funding."

The mayor said funding would not necessary involve cash aids but could be in the form of programs such as health services.

He said the community was part of the city administration's plan to actively involve the public in the redevelopment of Denpasar.

"The public will be involved at various stages during CSR community activities, including organizing the city administration agenda and in the yearly development planning meeting," Darmawijaya said.

"We expect to receive thoughts and suggestions from the public at every stage of development planning."

The city administration appointed Denpasar Development Planning Board head, IGP Anindya Putra, to coordinate a facilitating team to fulfil the DCSRC goals.

The team will handle the socio-culture, infrastructure, economy, education basic services, health basic services, poverty alleviation and environment sectors.

Anindya said these sectors were identified as the areas in the city that required long-term urgent aid and development.

The city administration also expected corporations to assign their own program coordinator.

Bali branch head of the state-owned financing firm Permodalan Nasional Madani, Nyoman Wijana, said there were often overlaps in CSR activities in the field but generally applauded the effort by the Denpasar administration.