Corporate Citizenship

As part of the grand winning prize for the 2nd KWN National Competition 2006, team members from Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Seafield, Selangor recently visited Singapore for a two-day Exchange Program cum incentive trip from 26 till 28 January 2007 to meet the winning Singapore team, Pei Hwa Secondary School with the objective to expose Malaysian students to school education in Singapore and the KWN project undertaken by them. They also had a chance to visit educational and historical places like Little India, Chinatown, Esplanade, Merlion, Mount Faber, Esplanade & Botanical Garden.

Panasonic Malaysia hosted the third Kid Witness News (KWN) regional contest in collaboration with Panasonic Asia Pacific Pte Ltd, Singapore on December 7 at Golden Screen Cinema, Midvalley, Kuala Lumpur.

The video from Indonesia titled "Angklung" from SDI Dian Didaktika won the Grand Award defeating six other videos from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand and Vietnam. The Indonesian team won a trip to Japan as the grand prize. The other winning video from New Zealand together with Indonesia will enter the KWN International Award Competition to be held in the US in 2007. Malaysia was represented by Sek Men Keb Seafield, Subang Jaya with the video title "The Wonders of Recycled Arts" who won the Best Editing Award.

The 2nd National Competition and Awards Ceremony for Kid Witness News (KWN) was successfully held on 13 November 2006 at the Golden Screen Cinema, Mid Valley Megamall Kuala Lumpur.

YBhg Dato’ Salleh Husein, Deputy Director General, Ministry of Education Malaysia, together with Mr Hiroshi Nakamura, Managing Director of Panasonic Malaysia, presented the awards to the nine winning schools. The winners received trophies, certificates and also Panasonic products.

30 schools submitted their 5-minute video clips based on themes such as Sports, Arts and Environment and15 video clips made it to the final and were screened in the cinema. Top 9 video entries received awards in different categories, namely grand winner, runners-up, second runners-up and special award for storytelling, editing, sound, anchor, videography and jury’s special mention. The Grand Winner was Sek Men Keb Seafield, Selangor with their video titled, ‘The Wonders of Recycled Art’. They also won the Best Script and Sound award. The grand winner represented Malaysia for the regional competition held in Kuala Lumpur on 7 December 2006

Judging was based on criteria such as camera work, scriptwriting, sound, anchor, editing and overall performance. All the judges were impressed with the videos made by the students.

Representatives from Panasonic Malaysia, officials from State Education Department and Ministry of Education and members of the media were also present at the awards ceremony.

Employees from nine sister companies in the Panasonic Group of Companies showed concern for their 336 colleagues who were affected by the recent floods in Johor by initiating a fundraising programme through the Panasonic Human Resource Management Group.

A total of RM68,000 was collected and the amount was given to each employee based on the extent of damage, injuries sustained, loss of lives and damage to properties.

Panasonic Malaysia team members from Sports Club and Corporate Communications donated Panasonic washing machine and educational toys from the money raised during the annual dinner charity drive to the Spastic Children's Association of Selangor & Federal Territory (SCAS & FT). An association that provides academic and non-academic training, vocational programmes, sport activities, art & craft, music, singing, physiotherapy e.g. hydrotherapy, speech, occupational therapies and gym exercise to Spastic children.

Through our initiative to encourage marine life to inhibit and sustain the ecology and the beauty of the ocean, Panasonic organized a 4-day Marine Life Conservation program on artificial reef replanting from August 30 till Sept 2, 2006 at Perhentian Island, Terengganu, Malaysia.

This project was a follow-up and a re-visit to the area adopted by Panasonic on the artificial reef replanting project done for the first time in May 2005, to see the growth and development of the corals and at the same time to replant more artificial reef. Other activities include hoisting of National flag, underwater painting, cleaning the sea bed and conservation activities with the local students from the island.

At Panasonic, we believe in being responsible corporate citizens to assist in whatever we can to alleviate the grief of others affected by this disaster. Along with other Asian nations, our nation too experienced a devastating natural disaster that swept some parts of the country. Although the scale of destruction is incomparable to that of Sri Lanka and other nations, the loss of lives and those who suffered injuries in Malaysian shores created a void in peoples' hearts and many grieves for those who became victim to the disaster. Panasonic Group of Companies in Malaysia donated 1,500 pieces of Panasonic torch lights and 4,500 pieces of Panasonic batteries (RM30,000) along with 10,000 Maggi cup noodles (RM10,000), totaling RM40,000 in kind.

Panasonic Malaysia, a certified MS ISO 14001:1997 company supports 'Recycle PC' programme initiated by PIKOM and Alam Flora. The handing over of PM old computers was held at PM Head office on Jun 8, 2005. This computer recycling exercise is also one of PM's ISO projects that the company is continuously embarking upon apart from the on-going conservation exercise on paper, electricity and water. Such initiative will not only help to conserve the environment in the long run but also create awareness to the public on the importance of ensuring unused computers are sent to a proper recycling company.