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October 19, 2007 - AGBC Bonn Hosts First TIMA UN Global Compact Management Training at the former Bundeshaus in Bonn

Note: The Global Compact (GC) is a voluntary UN corporate citizen initiative to commit businesses to sustainability and social responsibility by adhering to ten universially accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption and to report progress to the UN.

On 19 October 2007, AGBC Bonn and SMI-Hyundai hosted TIMA International, a company for transition and integration management, conducted its first UN Global Compact Management Seminar at the Bundeshaus in Bonn. The seminar was designed as a pilot for training seminars of TIMA and TIMA partners on UN Global Compact related issues and requirements. 12 companies followed the invitation of TIMA president, Dr. Achim Deja.

AGBC president, Walter A. Bawell, and Vice-President, Mark Janssen generously supported this event by providing the history-charged environment of the Bundeshaus and by providing a birefing on AGBC's mission to further US-German business and transatlantic relations. All AGBC members were invited to attend the afternoon session.

TIMA International joined the UN Global Compact in 2006 and committed the so-called ten GC principles including human rights, labor rights, environmental protection, transparency and non-corruption.

Being a member of the GC means not only to incorporate such ten principles into the code of conduct of a company. It also requires to pay attention to work with partners who are equally committed to such framework. GC members demonstrate their commitment and contribute to transparency by providing an annual ‘Communication of Progress’ (CoP).

It was therefore one major goal in this first seminar of TIMA, to introduce the contents and obligations of the Global Compact to its partners and – important for understanding the advantage of this seemingly extra effort - its particular economic opportunities and possibilities for sustainability and outperformance in business.

Since the CoP is of particular importance for demonstrating a GC member’s continuous commitment, the second part of the seminar focused on the consequences of the TIMA Code of Conduct for its partners. To the seminar participants, the necessity and particular needs of and within the CoP drafting process were of imminent concern. Especially, the question how the partners can incorporate the 10 GC principles into their daily work was discussed with great interest.

As guideline, Dr. Deja introduced his concept for prosperity sharing through the TIMA UN Global Compact Business Model. In this model, TIMA responds to the GC requirements by pooling competences of partners in accordance with the standards of the UN Global Compact. As a result TIMA and partner enable their clients for process leadership, outperforming value chains and sustainable development.

This approach was further highlighted by a case study, presented by Dr. Martina Timmermann, Project Adviser of United Nations University. Starting out from a UN documentary, she introduced the participants to a successfully conducted project in the field of medical technology which had been jointly designed and accompanied by TIMA and United Nations University.

The highlight of this first seminar was the signing of a joint declaration of the participants to commit themselves to the principles of the UN Global Compact and the TIMA Code of Conduct.