Singapore - Chief executive officers (CEOs) in the Asia-Pacific region are ahead of their counterparts elsewhere when it comes to embracing corporate social responsibility, a survey report said on Monday.

"CEOs in the Americas are beginning to show more interest, but focus is increasingly faster among European CEOs," said the IBM survey report, The Enterprise of the Future.

The "Asia-Pacific actually showed the most dramatic increase, with attention nearly tripling since 2004," it noted.

Corporate social responsibility includes the environment, social issues such as child labour and political concerns including human rights as part of business.

IBM's global poll of 1,130 CEOs found they plan to invest on average 25 per cent more on corporate social responsibility in the next three years. The 400 CEOs polled in the Asia-Pacific region said they intend to invest on average 42 per cent more on corporate social responsibility.

Asia-Pacific CEOs emerged as more upbeat, confident and progressive than their global peers, the poll found.

Eighty-two per cent of the Asia-Pacific CEOs queried were positive about the impact of rising prosperity in emerging markets compared to 67 per cent for the global average.

The region's CEOs are stepping up investments to engage the informed and collaborative customers by 25 per cent in the next three years, compared to 22 per cent for the global average increase. (dpa)