(21 December 2016 – Hong Kong) New World Department Store China Limited (“NWDS” or the “Company”; Hong Kong stock code: 825), one of the largest owners and operators of department stores in Mainland China, is pleased to announce that it garnered the “Corporate Citizenship Logos” in the “Enterprise” and “Volunteer” categories presented by Hong Kong Productivity Council for the second year. The volunteer team from Hong Kong Office, on the other hand, clinched the “Hong Kong Community Volunteers (Corporate Member) Certificate of Appreciation” issued by the Agency for Volunteer Service for the third consecutive year. These honors well demonstrate the Company’s relentless efforts not only in caring for the community, but also in its continual cultivation of an internal corporate volunteering culture that encourages its staff to team up and give back to society.

The “Hong Kong Corporate Citizenship Program” is organized by Hong Kong Productivity Council. By assessing the integrated performance of participating enterprises in the aspects of their corporate social responsibility vision, how they enhance employees’ work-life balance, their efforts on promoting sustainable economic, social and environmental development, their operational methodology and their community involvement, etc., the program aims at recognizing companies that are actively putting social responsibilities into action. NWDS always cares about the holistic well-being of its staff and has been rolling out measures that are above statutory requirements, including birthday leaves, paid paternity leaves for male staff, marriage leaves, examination leaves and caring leaves to cultivate a family-friendly corporate culture and workplace. The Company also encourages its staff and their friends and families to take part in family fun days, volunteer services and outings it organized to foster harmonious family relationships. On top of these, the Company also actively encourages its staff to extend their caring spirit to the community. NWDS Volunteer Team was founded in 2013, which has now grown to a scale of over 2,400 volunteers, and contributed 7,500 volunteer service hours in FY2016, demonstrating NWDS’ excellent corporate volunteering culture. The volunteer team from Hong Kong Office organized a series of activities during April 2015 to March 2016, including “Bubble Football”, “Tennis Volunteer Activity”, “Lighting up Christmas with Ping Pong” and “NWDS@Hello Kitty Heart-warming Farm Trip”, etc. The team also actively supported community activities organized by the New World Group and other non-profit organizations and contributed 332 volunteer service hours in total. The team’s selfless caring spirit and efforts are recognized for the third time by the Agency for Volunteer Service with the “Hong Kong Community Volunteers (Corporate Member) Certificate of Appreciation”.

Ms. Violet Chan, Assistant General Manager of Corporate Communication and Chairman of Sustainability Steering Committee of NWDS, said, “We regard our staff as the Company’s important asset. Therefore, we strive to build a family-friendly workplace with frequent interest classes and recreational activities to help them achieve work-life balance. In addition to caring for our staff, we also extend our caring spirit to the under-resourced in our society. Not only have we organized volunteer activities from time to time, we have also taken an active stance in inviting the families and friends of our employees to join these activities. Our goal is to spread the culture of caring and giving back to society. We are much honored that our efforts in employee caring and community involvement have been widely recognized. Looking forward, we will continue our efforts by implementing a comprehensive sustainability policy, fulfilling our corporate social responsibilities with great enthusiasm and doing our best to actualize our obligations as a corporate citizen.” 

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