Mutual Growth through Community Empowerment
Since the inception of the Company, RGE group companies have regarded themselves as integral components of the communities in which they operate. As the Group expands its business, it also strives to promote socio-economic prosperity in the local communities for the good of the people.
A broad range of social programs has been initiated to construct schools in impoverished remote areas, provide advanced teaching equipment and facilities, build libraries, establish scholarship funds and train teachers.
RGE’s business groups establish partnerships with local villagers, providing them with farming skills, vocational training and economic assistance. While offering work opportunities, the programs also encourage them to start their own businesses, significantly improving the standard of living in the surrounding villages. In Brazil, Bahia Specialty Cellulose has coordinated bee farming and fiber farming programs that help increase income and improve living conditions.
In China, the programs provide funds to build houses, repair roads including community infrastructure and establish schools in remote areas. In Indonesia, Integrated Farming Schemes have allowed subsistence farmers to become economically self-sustainable while medical services such as clinics, pharmacy posts and access to medical practitioners have benefited more than 100,000 people.
In 2001, RGE’s Founder and Chairman Mr Sukanto Tanoto and his family established the Tanoto Foundation, with the intent to reduce poverty through education and empowerment programs. It also provides disaster relief, having offered aid to victims of tsunamis in Indonesia, and earthquakes and floods in China.