Pan Pacific Hotels and Resorts was recently honored with the prestigious Global Business Coalition 2002 Award for Business Excellence at a conference in New York. Speeches from United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and William J Clinton, Chairman of the IAT, lead the evening`s events. More than 500 members of the international business, political, entertainment and HIV / AIDS communities joined Richard Holbrooke, GBC President and CEO, to honor William H Roedy, President, MTV Networks International, and outgoing Chairman of the GBC and Juergen Schrempp, Chairman, DaimlerChrysler AG, the new Chairman of the GBC, as well as Pan Pacific, as part of a revitalized effort to mobilize the international business community against the HIV / AIDS epidemic.

Vice President Steve Halliday was in attendance to accept the award on behalf of the company`s Bangkok hotel which received the Award for Business Excellence in the Community due to The Pan Pacific Bangkok`s education program targeting young women, providing them with life skills training, including HIV prevention and awareness. Halliday comments, “The program we started at The Pan Pacific Bangkok in 1995, with nine students, has now served more than 500 young women.” He continues, “In collaboration with Thailand`s UNICEF Office for child protection, The Pan Pacific Bangkok has developed a program which has served to train hundreds of adolescents as a preventive strategy against the exploitation of children and youth.”

This commitment is an example of Pan Pacific`s corporate philosophy and international brand promise which is to provide “personalized care, because we genuinely care.” Halliday reinforces, “Our commitment to caring extends beyond the walls of our hotels… it is a commitment to our associates and to the people of the communities in which we operate. It`s about empowering our associates and encouraging them to not only be the best they can be but to also do their best to help others.” The Global Business Coalition on HIV / AIDS is a rapidly growing coalition of international businesses dedicated to combating the AIDS epidemic through the business sector`s unique skills and expertise.

UNICEF joins force with private sector to provide skills training to disadvantaged girls

The Youth Career Development Programme (YCDP), a joint collaboration for child protection of UNICEF Office for Thailand with 19 leading hotels, Standard Chartered Nakornthon Bank and Bumrungrad Hospital, celebrates its 2002 training program for 107 girl adolescents from the north and northeast.

The YCDP is an initiative launched by The Pan Pacific Bangkok and UNICEF Office for Thailand, as a preventive strategy against the exploitation of children and youth. Starting in 1995, the programme has successfully facilitated access to skills training and employment opportunities for adolescent girls and young women. Each year a group of youths, considered to be disadvantaged due to poverty and vulnerable and at-risk of exploitation, is selected from the north and northeast regions to take a five-month training course in hotel hospitality.

The twenty-week training course covers various facets of the hospitality industry, including housekeeping, laundry, floristry, food and beverage service and kitchens. Trainees also receive basic English lessons and attend courses on a variety of “life-coping” skills including sex education, AIDS awareness and prevention, job interview skills, and child rights awareness and child protection.

More than 50% of the program`s participants are being employed in hotels where they received training or in other hotels. Others work outside the hotel industry. They, for example, teach in day care centers, or work in florist shops or hospitals.

Country Representative of UNICEF Office for Thailand, Mr Gamini Abeysekera, said “The collaboration between the hotel industry, the Royal Thai Government and UNICEF has brought about very positive results. The positive developments cannot be measured only by the number of young women who benefit from the Youth Career Development Program. The more significant outcome is the example that this program sets to enable the improvement of the quality and security of life for our youth. Having experimented with the YCDP will promising results, now we need to also explore how best to broadbase and institutionalize the YCDP to ensure its wider impact sustainability and encourage further contribution of the private sector.

Progress made in recent years has been a substantial increase in the number of participating adolescent girls from 67 in 2000 to 100 in 2001 and to 107 in this year. More leading hotels have joined, increasing from 14 in the year 2000 to 18 last year and to 19 this year. Those 19 hotels include: The Pan Pacific Bangkok, The Regent, Shangri-La, JW Marriott, Grand Pacific, The Peninsula, The Sukhothai, Novotel Lotus, Merchant Court, Grand Hyatt Erawan, Pathumwan Princesss, Novotel Siam Square, Royal Orchid Sheraton, Siam Inter-Continental, The Westin Banyan Tree, Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza, Sheraton Grand Sukhumvit, Novotel Bangna and Sofitel Central Plaza.

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