Bursa Malaysia Berhad and UN Global Compact Network Malaysia & Brunei (UNGCMYB), an official local network of the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), have announced a collaboration to jointly explore the development of sustainability-focused capability and capacity building programs that are specifically designed for the Malaysian marketplace.
Bursa Malaysia said in a statement on Monday that under the memorandum of collaboration, both parties will explore several initiatives including developing sustainability-related programs or certifications that will support the upskilling of sustainability practitioners of public listed companies (PLCs) and small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in their supply chains in a targeted manner.
The efforts build on an earlier collaboration, which resulted in the release of the Corporate Sustainability Practitioner Competency Framework in 2021, which is a tool for practitioners to ascertain their level of the competencies on sustainability-related functions.
This current initiative comes at a time where companies are increasingly scrutinized by their stakeholders on how they incorporate sustainability strategies and considerations in their business operations.
Bursa Malaysia opined that Malaysian businesses must be adept at responding to the multitude of sustainability challenges.
Thus, the collaboration aims to identify needs and bridge the gap between current practices and what is now required of Malaysian companies, as well as the complex requirements these companies are expected to adhere to in continuing to carry out business with the international community.
“A sustainability capacity building program for Malaysian companies is essential to ensure that companies are able to fill gaps in the sustainability talent pool, by pointing listed companies towards credible avenues to upskill the sustainability capabilities of their employees,” said Muhamad Umar Swift, Chief Executive Officer of Bursa Malaysia.
“The expanded collaboration with the UNGCYMB reaffirms Bursa Malaysia’s commitment to working with stakeholders in developing a capable, and sustainability-focused marketplace,
“This signals our collective intent to support the Malaysian talent pool in navigating the increasingly complex global environment,” he added.
In addition, the collaboration will also provide a channel for SMEs in the supply chain of PLCs to improve their climate disclosures and onboard onto the Bursa Malaysia Centralized Sustainability Intelligence (CSI) Platform as part of the SME Decarbonization Program.
As part of its commitment to supporting the decarbonization of SMEs, UNGCMYB recently rolled out the SME ESG Hub, a comprehensive environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) resource platform for Malaysian SMEs.
The hub aims to support SMEs in planning, implementing, and communicating their ESG initiatives through practical resources including local and global case studies, and toolkits.
“Sustainability competency is critical to bridge the do-gap for sustainability and this expanded collaboration with Bursa Malaysia looks to develop an ecosystem of sustainability talents,
“We aim to do this by scaling and accelerating ESG competence by providing relevant programs, workshops and tools for both corporates and SMEs,” said Faroze Nadar, Executive Director of UNGCMYB.
Bursa Malaysia is an exchange holding company incorporated in 1976 and listed in 2005, and has grown to be one of the largest bourses in ASEAN today.
Bursa Malaysia operates and regulates a fully-integrated exchange offering a comprehensive range of exchange-related facilities, and is committed to creating opportunities, growing value.
UNGC is a strategic policy initiative for businesses that are committed to take actions to advance broader societal goals.
UNGCMYB is the official local network of UNGC, that supports Malaysian and Bruneian companies in enabling them to contribute towards the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and achieve business excellence via our 10 principles, programs and tools while providing access to partnerships with a range of stakeholders – to share best practices and emerging solutions.
The network also seeks to position Malaysian and Bruneian businesses as a benchmark and a primary agent in driving a sustainable world.