Jamshedpur, April 15: The steel city will soon represent Southeast Asia in a global meet.

Jamshedpur is one of the six cities that have been chosen from across the world to participate in the UN Global Compact Cities Pilot Programme, a meet to address social, economic and environmental issues in the urban context across the world.

The other cities that would participate in the programme are Melbourne (Australia), Porto Alegre (Brazil), Tianjin (PRC), Nairobi (Kenya) and San Francisco (USA).

According to Sanjay Choudhry, head, Corporate Communications, Tata Steel, the objective of this pilot project is to develop innovative solutions by working in partnership with government, business and academic organisations.

Choudhry said the reason for the city to be nominated was the record of Tata Steel in the field of community development and its involvement in the development and services to the city.

To implement this project, a committee for the city and local secretariat will be formed in the city. Deputy managing director, Tata Steel A.N. Singh would be the process owner of this project and would facilitate the implementation of the programme while Anant Nadkarni from the Tata Council for Community Initiatives will be the anchor-person and co-ordinator of the programme.

Tata Steel will develop practical solutions to contemporary urban issues existing in the city and share the city’s best practices and proven solutions with other cities in the world facing similar problems.

The project, to run over a period of two years, will identify and address social, environmental or economic issues, which have a direct impact on business, government and civil society with the help of the Melbourne Model.

The company’s Town Division, which provides municipal and civic facilities, have been certified ISO 14001 for Environment Management System, the first in the country.

This pilot programme would also help in tackling issues involving multiple stakeholders and will seek to have human as well as tangible impacts.

“For Tata Steel, social responsibility is not only a commitment, but also one of its core business processes. As part of its corporate social responsibility, Tata Steel has taken up proactive steps in HIV/AIDS prevention by spreading awareness in the city and its peripheries,” Choudhry said.

He added that the company has been conferred the prestigious Global Business Coalition award (GBC) in 2003 for Business Excellence in the Community in 2003 for its efforts in these areas.