The Minister of Culture and Information, Adel Al-Toraifi, recently patronized Al-Riyadh Literary Club's annual ceremony during which its prestigious Book of the Year awards were given to Dr. Hind Al-Mutairi and Dr. Abdulla Al-Muneef.
The idea of the literary clubs in the Kingdom is to create an intellectual literary framework to make the Kingdom a hub for literature. This award aims to encourage creative writers and authors in various human endeavors.
In modern societies, companies in the private sector bear their social responsibility in cooperation with government or voluntary charity organizations in serving society.
In this context, literary and intellectual clubs provide areas to the practice of social responsibility. In these areas, the private sector plays a vital role in encouraging creative work.
It is true that the government is in charge of everything that relates to the society. But the private sector has a role to play in the development of the society, and should not confine its role to making profits. Through social responsibility, the private sector could allocate part of its revenues for human development.
We are not suggesting that the private sector companies become charity organizations, but we want to see real long-term commitment in sponsoring talents. In fact, there are some people who think that social responsibility and charity are two names for one thing. This is a serious misunderstanding, because the outcome of charity is temporary while outcomes of contributions in social responsibility are tangible and permanent.
