Chinese listed companies generally lag behind international enterprises on information disclosure regarding their social and environmental responsibilities, according to a report released on Friday.

The report, produced by the China Forum of Environmental Journalists and the Beijing University of Chemical Technology, ****yzed the environmental, sustainable development and social responsibility reports for 2012 of 617 listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges.

Fifteen experts in management, economics, the environment and engineering evaluated the companies' environmental responsibilities based on information disclosure in certain areas, including environmental awareness, management and performance and energy use.

The companies were divided into two categories; primary, secondary and tertiary. Primary involves the retrieval of resources. Secondary involves the transformation of these resources into goods and tertiary involves services.

More than 400 companies in primary and secondary industries scored about 40 out of 100 on average, with about 18 percent passing.

Tertiary enterprises received an average score of less than 35, with a pass rate of less than 7 percent.

"Of all the approximately 2,000 listed companies on the two stock exchanges, only the studied 617 had published their social responsibility reports, and only 18 of these has separate environmental responsibility reports," said Chen Dongsheng, vice-president of the university and one of the 15 experts.

He said the figures show that Chinese companies lag far behind their international counterparts in this area.

Eighty companies from polluting industries of the 617 are monitored by the Environmental Protection Ministry. The pass rate for this group was almost 29 percent, a figure much higher than the total average, the report reveals.

"The purpose of the report is to praise the companies that are doing well in disclosing their environmental responsibility information, and to push the rest to improve," said Chen.

He said group may in future include Chinese listed companies in Hong Kong and overseas exchanges.

[From:http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2013-11/29/content_17141517.htm]