In a message to the 4th International CEO (Chief Executive Officer) Roundtable of Chinese and Foreign Multinational Corporations in Beijing, Mr. Ban lauded the roundtable’s focus on investment, corporate social responsibility and sustainable development.

“Private investment,” he said, has an important part to play in “promoting energy efficiency, low-carbon development and green technology.”

He said private investment promoted innovation and job creation, which made it “crucial to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),” the eight globally agreed poverty reduction and social development targets with a 2015 deadline.

While recognizing progress towards the achievement of the MDGs, especially in education and health, he stressed that much more remained to be done.

“Improvements in the lives of the poor have been unacceptably slow,” the Secretary-General said. “Some hard-won gains are being eroded by the impacts of climate change, by volatility in food prices, and by the economic and financial crisis,” he added.

The private sector will have to work with the governments to accelerate progress towards achieving the MDGs.

“We will also continue to look to the private sector – including Chinese companies – for support,” Mr. Ban said.

On corporate social responsibility, the Secretary-General called for building on successes.

“More and more business leaders accept that principles and profits go hand-in-hand. Yet the vast majority of companies operating in the world today have yet to commit to the tenets of corporate sustainability, and high-profile corporate crises have eroded public trust.”

Encouraged by the increasing number of Chinese companies signing-up to the UN Global Compact – an initiative that seeks to foster socially responsible business practices – the Secretary-General expressed the hope that more corporations will embrace the Compact’s ideas and principles.