Community

2018

ANNUAL REPORT

Community

Enriching lives and strengthening societal bonds in our communities are fundamental to our business philosophy. Guided by our values of Honour, Enterprise, Unity and Commitment, we draw together our colleagues, customers and business partners to make a positive difference through philanthropy, partnerships and participation. We are focused and inclusive in our commitment to support the development of the communities in which we operate through art, children and education. Our efforts have enabled us to help the young, the underprivileged and budding talent across the region over many decades.

Mr Wee Ee Cheong, UOB Deputy Chairman and CEO, and Ms Jenny Wong, Group Head of Human Resources, led more than 8,200 colleagues, their families and customers to volunteer and to raise funds at the 2018 UOB Heartbeat Run/Walk in Singapore.

2018 Highlights

Championed Southeast Asian visual art and artists through the 37th UOB Painting of the Year (POY) competition, international art fairs, outreach initiatives and partnerships;
Opened UOB Art Galleries in China and Malaysia to raise awareness and appreciation of Southeast Asian art, and to give UOB POY artists international exposure;
Partnered Indonesia’s Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nusantara (Museum MACAN) to promote art education and to make art accessible to the local community;
Contributed more than $5.1 million to communities in Asia through the UOB Heartbeat Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
programme, with our colleagues, customers and business partners;
Recorded highest participation of close to 18,000 colleagues, their families and customers at the 2018 UOB Heartbeat Run/Walk
and fundraising day across seven markets;
Clocked more than 51,000 hours in volunteer work across the region – 16 per cent more than in 2017;
Integrated innovation into corporate giving to raise funds through new mobile payment channels such as PayNow, SGQR and WeChat; and
Received 11 industry awards and accolades, including for our UOB Heartbeat Run/Walk programme.

The UOB Heartbeat CSR programme demonstrates our long-term commitment to enriching lives, to opening minds and to strengthening bonds in the communities where we operate. We aim to create sustainable good for more caring and inclusive societies through our efforts in corporate philanthropy, stakeholder partnerships and employee participation.

Philanthropy

We are committed to helping improve lives and strengthen the social fabric through financial and non-financial contributions such as donations in cash or kind, sponsorships, scholarships and the purchase of goods and services from charities.

Partnerships

We maximise our corporate giving by connecting and collaborating with partners for greater reach and impact. They include customers, business partners, vendors, community development councils and institutions, and UOB POY artists.

Participation

We unite as one in giving our time, skills and service to help build strong, inclusive and caring communities. We promote volunteerism across the organisation that creates a sense of belonging for our colleagues and helps make a positive difference in the lives of others.

We focus on three areas which we believe are essential for the quality and progress of society: art, children and education.

Art

Championing Southeast Asian Art
Art connects people, broadens minds, enriches lives and strengthens societal bonds. With our regional heritage and long standing support of Southeast Asian art, we aim to draw out the next generation of great artists from the region.

Children

Developing the Young to Their Potential
Children are the future so we must care for them today. Our efforts focus on helping them have a strong head start in life, giving them opportunities to express themselves fully and encouraging them to uncover and to cultivate their individual talent.

Education

Laying the Foundation For the Future
Education is essential for the progress of a country, its economy and its people. We open up and support learning opportunities for young minds and we help develop leaders of tomorrow.

In helping to build sustainable and inclusive communities for the long term, we believe in starting with the young. To help them develop to their full potential, we focus our efforts on their well-being and education.

Building Confidence Through Care

We support a number of programmes that are designed to help children progress in their physical and emotional development. Since 2016, we have sponsored art therapy services for children through The Red Pencil, a non-profit organisation that helps children with traumatic experiences heal and grow through the arts. In 2018, we also worked with New Life Stories to fund reading programmes for underprivileged children whose parents are serving time. These sessions help improve the child’s social confidence and language skills as they often do not have the opportunity to interact with others outside of their own families.

Riding on the importance of education, we aim to build better lives for underprivileged children in Vietnam.

In Vietnam, we partnered the Saigon Children’s Charity to raise more than $11,000 to purchase bicycles for underprivileged children from Tien Giang province. With the bicycles, the children can ride instead of walk to school and have more time and energy to focus on their studies.

Encouraging Self Expression

We believe that children need to be recognised and appreciated for their unique abilities. In Thailand, we worked with art professors and handicraft specialists to develop a five-week training programme for the visually impaired. Through the programme, the children acquired skills in various art techniques and were encouraged to express themselves. It helped build their confidence which was reinforced when they were also able to help others by selling their own artworks to raise funds for charity.

Kindling a child’s passion for art is UOB POY artist Mr Chok Yue Zan.

Piecing together a vision for her future.

Guided by our colleagues, children read from books with embossed words and illustrations - the work of their own hands.

Levelling the Playing Field

We volunteer our time, skills and service to help children overcome barriers to education and learning. The UOB Life Skills for Phra Dabos Project is a special collaboration between UOB Thailand and Phra Dabos School – a vocational school for underprivileged students. More than 120 students benefitted from this project in 2018. The courses in subjects such as English language, sport and music appreciation were organised and run by our colleagues in Thailand.
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Since 2015 in Thailand, we have championed the UOB Please Touch programme, an outreach initiative for visually impaired children. The programme also aims to help youth who aspire to be artists by equipping them with art and craft skills to help them carve out a career in art. In Singapore, UOB is a long-time sponsor of the Little Arts Academy’s Mini Monet, an advanced visual arts programme to nurture and to support talented young visual artists from financially-disadvantaged families.

Our colleagues leading on-the-ground training in the UOB Life Skills for Phra Dabos Project.

Show me the Monet – young artists paint their world.

We believe that education has the ability to change lives and communities for the better as it prepares us to seize opportunities, to overcome challenges and to experience life fully. Therefore, UOB supports education programmes and initiatives that develop young minds, especially those of children from underprivileged backgrounds or who have special needs.

Taking Care of the Essentials

UOB China provided financial support for the education of underprivileged children from Shunhe Yi Minority Village School in Ya’an City of Sichuan Province. To help the children and their families, our volunteers also donated books, uniforms, shoes and household essentials.

Essential to life skills is basic money management. In 2018, UOB ran several financial literacy programmes for children across the region. In Singapore, 30 children from Hougang Sheng Hong Student Care Centre participated in the UOB Heartbeat Education Workshop where they were also taken on a guided tour of the UOB main branch to experience elements of banking.

In Malaysia, we worked with industry partners such as Bank Negara Malaysia, the Financial Industry Collective Outreach and Teach For Malaysia to raise financial literacy standards of the young through workshops and talks. Our colleagues also participated in mentoring programmes across schools in Sabah and Sarawak to teach students about the importance of saving and spending responsibly.

100 students from Shunhe Yi Minority Village School all kitted out for class.

Students from Sichuan Province figuring out the fake from the real notes in a money management lesson.

Seeing is believing – children from Hougang Sheng Hong Student Care Centre receive first-hand experience of the workings of a bank branch.

Training Tomorrow's Leaders

Every year, students from low-income families are given scholarships as part of the Wee Cho Yaw Future Leaders Award. In 2018, 13 students received the award. The $50 million programme which was launched in 2015, is in partnership with the Nanyang Technological University and the National University of Singapore. Through it, UOB aims to develop future leaders by providing tertiary education opportunities to underprivileged students.
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UOB also launched a postgraduate scholarship programme with the Singapore Management University to deepen the data skillsets of Singapore’s pipeline of talent. This is to prepare them for the increasingly significant role that data plays in driving informed business decisions and strategies for organisations. Under UOB’s programme, two students received a full Masters of Science scholarship in 2018 to study Data and Analytics.

Two scholars on the way to their Masters degree in data and analytics.

Other Key Sections

Corporate Governance

Five-year Group Performance

Our Awards and Accolades in 2018

Investor Reference

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