01 Our vision of 02 Sustainable 03 Active 04 Strengthening sustainability 05 Appendices sustainability investing stewardship in our operations 03.4 Engagement outcomes Principle 7 9 Case study: Labour issues in Case study: Assessing the electronics supply chain labour practices in China’s In response to controversies concerning Xinjiang region forced labour issues in its supply chain, Following allegations that some we engaged with a Japanese electronics European car-makers were linked with company on its governance and policies forced labour in China’s Xinjiang region, around the 昀椀rst three pillars of our we engaged with one of the companies. human rights framework. During our The goal of the engagement was to discussion, we asked the company to encourage the company to carry out an formalise the review of its human rights independent audit of its Xinjiang plant, policy and to provide more disclosure to credibly demonstrate that it was not around its risk assessments. Although this employing forced labour. Several months engagement demonstrated that the after the engagement, the car-maker company had su昀케cient processes disclosed that its independent audit in place, we took the view that they had found no evidence of forced labour. were not su昀케ciently formalised and We appreciated the company’s progress, highlighted this. We will monitor despite the limited scope, and asked it the company’s progress in a follow- to repeat the assessment more regularly up conversation. in the future. This dialogue was of particular bene昀椀t to our 昀椀xed income holdings, and the credit analyst and portfolio manager were closely involved in the engagement. Allianz Global Investors Sustainability and Stewardship Report 2023 54