11 September 2019 - Parliament Malaysia, United Nations Malaysia and Global Compact Network Malaysia have organised a Sustainable Development Goals-themed event “Together for SDGs”, held at Dewan Persidangan Parlimen, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia today. The event, entitled “Financing the SDGs: Malaysian Private Sector role in bridging the gap from goals to actions”, is part of the Government call for action to educate and mobilise private sector participation towards achieving the SDG objectives. The United Nation 2030 agenda has 17 goals and 169 targets to be achieved by 2030.
More than 100 participants from the Government and its agencies, United Nations, private sectors and non-government organisations (NGO) attended the event.
Mr. Faroze Nadar, the Executive Director of United Nation Global Compact Malaysia (UNGC MY) shared that to achieve the SDG goals, climate and water are the top issues where leadership, digital sustainability and translating environment, social and governance (ESG) as dashboard are desired.
Deputy speaker and Member of Parliament for Batu Pahat, YB Dato' Haji Mohd Rashid bin Hasnon welcomed the participants. In his keynote speech, he reiterated about Malaysia’s Shared Prosperity 2030, a vision to allow the country to steer ahead continually and sustainably concurrent with fair and inclusive equitable growth. On the same note, he encouraged the private sectors to contribute towards sustainability via corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities and doing business ethically while aligning them with SDG goals.
Mr. Stefan Priesner, the United Nations Resident Coordinator for Malaysia Brunei & Singapore applauded Malaysia and the Parliament for the successful collaboration by encouraging private contribution, which if observed uniquely, can potentially aid in achieving the SDG goals. These can be executed through responsible banking from banks which are already SDG-compliant, innovation such as Renewable Energy (RE) and Energy Efficiency homes, and business process alignment plan on the supply chain on the positive and negative contribution to the business.
Associated Professor Dr. Avvari Mohan of University of Nottingham moderated a discussion with panellists seeking their expert views on financing SDGs.
YB Steven Sim, Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports, Malaysia invites the private sector to sponsor the sports sector through various associations or Malaysian athletes. This benefits the private companies as well in terms of projecting a healthy brand image.
Datin Seri Sunita Rajakumar, Chairperson of Caring Group and Founder of Climate Governance Initiative Malaysia prompted the audience that the effect of Climate Change has no boundaries and it has the capacity to affect all countries in the region where Malaysia can suffer devastating heat and flooding in very near future. There is an imminent potential vulnerabilities or risk exposures to private sector unless all stakeholders take concerted effort to work together to mitigate the risks.
Mr. Rizal Ishak, Director of RRJ Capital opined that the banking and financing sector needs to enhance their code of conduct with regards to SDG by aligning existing financing products, standardising reporting and accounting, and developing innovative banking products that support SDGs. The practice of Islamic financing requires wider adoption as it can potentially play a key role in supporting SDG and while Value-Based Financing enables investors to evaluate the viability of the project as part of decision making process.
Aleevar Consulting is committed to pursue the SDG cause and open to collaboration interest in Public Private Partnership (PPP) model by contributing our experience in impact and programme assessment advisory from the healthcare, ICT and financial services sector.