Advancing Capability and Capacity Building on Sustainability in the Marketplace
December 2023 – Bursa Malaysia Berhad (“Bursa Malaysia” or “the Exchange”) and UN Global Compact Network Malaysia & Brunei (“UNGCMYB”), the Malaysian and Bruneian chapters of the United Nations Global Compact, announced a collaboration to jointly explore the development of sustainability-focused capability and capacity-building programmes that are specifically designed for the Malaysian marketplace.
Under the Memorandum of Collaboration (“MoC”), both parties will explore several
initiatives including developing sustainability-related programmes 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 scrutinised by their
stakeholders on how they incorporate sustainability strategies and considerations in their
business operations. Malaysian businesses must be adept at responding to the multitude of
sustainability challenges. 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.
Commenting on the collaboration, Datuk Muhamad Umar Swift, Chief Executive Officer of
Bursa Malaysia said, “A sustainability capacity building programme 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.”
“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,” added Datuk Umar.
Executive Officer, Datuk Muhamad Umar Swift (3
rd from right) and UN Global Compact Network
Malaysia & Brunei (UNGCMYB) Executive Director, Faroze Nadar (2nd from left); witnessed by Deputy
Minister of Economy, YB Dato Hajjah Hanifah Hajar Taib (3
rd from left), together with representatives
from Bursa Malaysia and UNGCMYB.
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 Centralised
Sustainability Intelligence (“CSI”) Platform1 as part of the SME Decarbonisation Programme.
As part of its commitment to supporting the decarbonisation of SMEs, UNGCMYB recently
rolled out the SME ESG Hub2, a comprehensive 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.
Mr Faroze Nadar, Executive Director of UNGCMYB said, “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 programmes, workshops and tools for
both corporates and SMEs.”
