CORE, the Corporate Citizenship for Responsible Enterprises, was launched this morning by President Marie Louise Coleiro Preca.

CORE was set up to create a dialogue platform for the sharing of ideas and learning how corporate social responsibility could be strengthened.

This would be done with international partners.

The President said she facilitated and supported the setting up of CORE, which will fall under the responsibility of the Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry.

During the launch, President Coleiro Preca said that corporate social responsibility has been enthusiastically implemented by a number of Maltese companies for years.

Companies realised that the implementation of a business that was responsible towards society was a crucial ingredient for sustainable development.

The principle behind corporate social responsibility was that of giving back an added value to society including through safeguarding the environment and by being of benefit to the community.

She noted that according to research carried out by the chamber in 2011, 88 per cent of companies in Malta were active in corporate social responsibility and 79 per cent of them said this had been beneficial for the operation of the company.