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1.1 Message from the CEO
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This is the Annual Management Report of Companhia Paranaense de Energia - Copel for the fiscal year 2006, prepared according to the third generation of the Global Reporting Initiative guidelines - GRI/G3.
In this Report you will find the initiatives of a year marked by the consolidation of the commitments of the Company towards the community, in the field of corporate responsibility and corporate governance, always conducting its business based on ethical principles. |
Copel’s vision of the future is to be the best company in the areas in which it operates and to be a reference in corporate governance and corporate sustainability. In order to achieve this goal, in the short term, business strategies were divided in three phases, called waves. During the first wave, beginning in 2003, issues, essential to the survival of the Company, were addressed - financial health, contracts and recomposing the workforce.
We are now living the second wave, the wave of operational excellence, which seeks to increase corporate profitability, to improve productivity of operational and support processes, and optimize corresponding costs.
At the same time, we started the actions that will enable the execution of the third wave, whose goal is to increase business income, also aiming at corporate profitability. The perspectives of growth remain very encouraging, and, in the past year, there were important driving factors such as the control-shares acquisition of UEGA, owner of Araucária Thermal Power Plant; the completion of the power generation complex on the Jordão River with the coming into operation of the Fundão Hydroelectric Power Plant, and of the small hydroelectric power plant embedded in the dam; and securing the concession to build and operate the Mauá Hydroelectric Power Plant, on the Tibagi River, under a partnership with Eletrosul, a federal subsidiary of Eletrobras. These efforts, however, are to be complemented, in due course, and properly coordinated in order to meet growth demands of the State of Paraná and the country, and, also of the Growth Acceleration Program of the Federal Government.
These waves are based on corporate social responsibility that permeates everything and aims at social and environmental development, thus contributing to a fairer, inclusive society with environmental quality.
In the medium-term, the Company, whose energy generation mix is mostly based on renewable sources, decided to undertake efforts and resources in order to diversify it, making it even more sustainable, taking into account the latest studies of the Inter-Government Panel for Climatic Change - IPCC. According to these studies, by 2050 world energy demand can be reduced by 47%, foreseeing strong emphasis on energy efficiency measures.
In the corporate sustainability context, Copel is being consolidated as a reference, not only in the national power sector, but also in a broader spectrum. For example, Copel’s shares, during 2007, will be among those that make up the Corporate Sustainability Index of Brazil’s Stock Exchange - Bovespa. This index has been developed in cooperation with the International Finance Corporation - IFC, and is similar to the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes published by the New York Stock Exchange - NYSE.
In 2006, Copel had the privilege of hosting, with the collaboration of Itaipu Binacional, the third meeting of the working group in charge of producing Global Reporting Initiative’s - GRI Electric Utilities Sector Supplement, where Copel has the important role of representing all sector companies from Latin America.
Specially committed to sustainability principles and practices, the Company has signed the United Nations’ Global Compact, an initiative that gathers nearly 3,000 companies around the world, and is listed among its main world agents, acting outstandingly in all its activities.
Our commitment to the ten principles of the Global Compact is permanently reaffirmed and revalidated by our practices that seek to protect and ensure the dignity of work, managerial transparency, proper financial conduct and protection of the environment.
Also noteworthy are the actions taken by the Company to adapt and adjust its control mechanisms and procedures to the regulations of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the measures taken to consolidate best Corporate Governance practices. Among these practices we have the Disclosure Policy for Relevant Acts and Facts; the dissemination of the Corporate Values; the performance of the Audit Committee, and the Confidential Channel of Communication, a mechanism that offers absolute confidentiality and receives complaints formulated by stakeholders, forwarding them and deepening the investigation, pointing out possible violation of ethical principles, probity and zeal by agents at the service of the corporation or connected to it.
In the long term, Copel is aware of the great challenges it will face in its search for sustainability, not only for itself, but especially for the community in which the Company takes part. The State of Paraná has a privileged situation regarding energy production based on biomass, whose production chain has a big impact on the creation of employment and income, as well as on the regionalization of economic activity. For this reason, this source of energy represents a sustainable alternative for several communities who nowadays are partially or totally excluded from the productive process. Copel intends to play a relevant role in the development of this potentiality.
The next years, however, will be marked by a strategic effort to become, not only a promoter of sustainable development in the State, by supplying energy with efficiency at a fair price, but also an inspirer and a driving force of the business community, towards a coordinated promotion of sustainability.
It is important to emphasize the fact that, as you may find in the next pages, the record of R$ 1,242.7 million in net income in 2006 is the result of the joint effort of Copel’s board of directors, officers, managers, and employees towards the main purpose of the Company: to promote the sustainable development of Paraná and to become one of the most representative power utilities, earning profits with social responsibility and respect for its customers, investors and other stakeholders.
Having made the preliminary observations, we would much appreciate your reading this report which features the financial, economic, social and environmental performance of Copel in 2006, in detail.
Curitiba, March 27, 2007
Rubens Ghilardi
Chief Executive Officer
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