I am delighted to present you with our CSR report for 2011, our fifth at Melco.

 

Although a full-year CSR Report is not mandatory for a listed company, we believe there's no better way to communicate our CSR achievements and share with you the many heart-warming moments we experienced during the year.

 

Our theme for this year's report — Empowering Youth for a Better Future — expresses our wish to support youth at an early stage in their lives when we can make the most difference. To address the growing social issues faced by young people today, we joined hands with a number of youth development organisations in 2011. Our hero programme for the year, Adventure-Based Counselling, was one of more than 40 charitable projects in which we participated. Nearly 24,000 children, youths, their families and the physically challenged benefitted from these projects.

 

Just as gratifying, we achieved a 90% increase in total staff volunteer hours this year, which demonstrated that the "We Care" spirit is alive and well among our staff members at Melco.

 

I was pleased to see our CSR efforts acknowledged by NGOs and the wider community during the year. Two of our many awards included the 5 Years Plus Caring Company mark from the Hong Kong Council of Social Service and recognition by FinanceAsia as one of the Best CSR organisations.

 

All of these accomplishments have ignited our passion to go the extra mile in 2012 and beyond. Our key CSR focus in the year ahead — Youth Development — will continue to be actualised by enabling quality education for underprivileged children, connecting children and their families with nature, and motivating young people to live life to the fullest extent.

 

I would like to take this opportunity to thank our NGO partners, CSR Committee and, most of all, our staff volunteers who have done so much to realise Melco's vision of inspiring hope and happiness in people all over the world.

 

Lawrence Ho

Group Chairman and Chief Executive Officer