As the largest contributor to Sierra Leone’s GDP and the country’s largest employer, we are committed to aligning our operations and strategies towards the ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption as set out in the UN Global Compact. We have maintained an active dialogue with...Human Rights Watch...for over 15 months and have repeatedly reiterated our commitment to being a positive force for economic and social change in Sierra Leone. While we respect the aims of HRW we do not agree with a number of their claims which we will be addressing at their symposium in Freetown...Nevertheless, we welcome constructive engagement with HRW and any other development organisations. The local communities that live in the surrounding area to our operations are extremely important to us, which is why last year, we invested US$3.63million in 22 local community projects. We have invested in excess of US$2 billion in the country to date and are very proud that our investment in people, training and teaching means that over 80 per cent of our workforce is made up of Sierra Leone nationals. Furthermore, we are pleased that our direct and indirect investment has contributed to Sierra Leone becoming the third fastest growing economy by GDP.