What are the material issues the company has identified?

In its 2022 Annual Report INTOUCH identified a range of material issues, such as high, stable and sustainable growth in return on investment, good corporate governance practice, prudent risk and crisis management, transparent communication and disclosure. Among these, creating economic value for its stakeholders stands out as a key material issue for INTOUCH.

Stakeholder engagement in accordance with the GRI Standards              

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) defines the Principle of Stakeholder Inclusiveness when identifying material issues (or a company’s most important impacts) as follows:

“The reporting organization shall identify its stakeholders, and explain how it has responded to their reasonable expectations and interests.”

Stakeholders must be consulted in the process of identifying a company’s most important impacts and their reasonable expectations and interests must be taken into account. This is an important cornerstone for CSR / sustainability reporting done responsibly.

Key stakeholder groups INTOUCH engages with:

Stakeholder Group	Method of engagement (Inform)
Shareholders and Investors	·      Hold annual / extra general meeting of shareholders ·      2 Online meetings for public investors and the media organised by the Stock Exchange of Thailand ·      Disclose information on the SET Link system ·      Intouch’s website ·      Online / Offline meetings and providing information to shareholders, investors, and the general public ·      Annual Report / Form 56-1 One Report ·      Inquiry via the Investor relations department
Employees	·      Quarterly meeting and engagement activities ·      Establishment of the company welfare committee ·      Conduct an employee engagement survey ·      Organising meetings of supervisors and employees to share opinions and recommendations on work improvement and engagement ·      Meeting between employee supervisor and human resource department to share and agree on development programmes that are required to match with company direction ·      Training, seminars, and test on knowledge related to business topics
Portfolio companies	·      Monthly / quarterly meetings to exchange information ·      Organise networking activities ·      Appoint representatives to sit on board of directors
Business partners	·      Meeting to exchange information ·      Annual Report / Form 56-1 One Report
Regulatory body	·      Meeting ·      Disclosure ·      Discussion ·      Attending seminars / giving opinion ·      Join the network of the government sector ·      Annual Report / Form 56-1 One Report
Financial institutions	·      Disclose information on the SET Link system ·      Company’s websites ·      Meetings ·      Annual Report / Form 56-1 One Report
Societies / Local communities	·      Company’s website ·      Annual Report / Form 56-1 One Report ·      CSR activities
Suppliers	·      Meetings ·      Annual Report / Form 56-1 One Report

How stakeholder engagement was made to identify material issues

To identify and prioritise material topics INTOUCH engaged with its stakeholders through meetings and in-depth discussions.

What actions were taken by INTOUCH to create economic value for its stakeholders?

In its 2022 Annual Report INTOUCH reports that it took the following actions for creating economic value for its stakeholders:

• Creating economic value for management and employees
• In 2022, INTOUCH paid 24 million Bath for management’s benefits and 56 million Bath for employees’ benefits.

• Creating economic value for shareholders
• In 2022, INTOUCH paid 10,774 million Bath in dividends to shareholders.

• Creating economic value for the government
• In 2022, INTOUCH paid 1 million Bath in taxes.

• Creating economic value for communities
• In 2022, INTOUCH spent 1 million Bath in investments and expenditures regarding community development, social infrastructure and the environment.

Which GRI Standards and corresponding Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been addressed?

The GRI Standard addressed in this case is: Disclosure 201-1 Direct economic value generated and distributed

Disclosure 201-1 Direct economic value generated and distributed corresponds to:

• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
• Targets: 8.1, 8.2
• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
• Targets: 9.1, 9.4, 9.5

 

78% of the world’s 250 largest companies report in accordance with the GRI Standards

SustainCase was primarily created to demonstrate, through case studies, the importance of dealing with a company’s most important impacts in a structured way, with use of the GRI Standards. To show how today’s best-run companies are achieving economic, social and environmental success – and how you can too.

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References:

This case study is based on published information by INTOUCH, located at the link below. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses. However, we made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the report’s meaning. If you would like to quote these written sources from the original please revert to the following link:

https://www.intouchcompany.com/download/AGM2023/AGM2023FORM56-1_en.pdf

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