...At the centre of the debate is the move by the Indonesian government to include CSR as a mandatory requirement in its latest revision to company law...In summary, Indonesian company law states that companies with an impact on natural resources must implement CSR which is to be budgeted for as a cost. Beyond that we await further regulations – both to define CSR in this context and to determine how it should be implemented and to clarify which companies are actually affected. Currently the law applies to companies ‘engaged in natural resources or those in business in connection with natural resources’, but it isn’t clear what is covered by the term ‘natural resources’. There are also concerns about how any ‘CSR fund’ will be administered, with many expressing fears that it will be a new avenue for corruption. We also await further regulations on how this law will relate to existing legislation – for example environmental laws and how sanctions will work. It is part of global trend that governments are looking to legislate for CSR, which I would argue is both inevitable and necessary. The question is has Indonesia, as the first country to legislate, got it right? Until we see the further regulations we just don’t know.