Corporations Need To Embed Sustainability In Policies, Strategies - Malaysian Minister

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 1 (Bernama) -- Malaysian corporations need to embed sustainability in their business policies and strategies to better recognise and assess material risks, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Abdul Wahid Omar said. He said sustainability was vital to business as this would allow corporations to identify new opportunities to ensure higher value-creation, innovation and competitive advantage. Information from sustainability reporting benefits organisations in a number of ways, including building trust with stakeholders, as well as improving processes and systems, progressive vision and strategy, competitive advantage, and reducing compliance costs, he added. He was speaking at the ACCA Malaysia Sustainability Reporting Awards (MaSRA) 2015 here Tuesday. Citing a survey from the World Federation of Exchanges at the first Bursa Malaysia Sustainability Series event in July 2015, he said there was a significant shift in investor and consumer perspective where companies were being measured on environmental and social impacts of their business. Wahid said indeed sustainability reporting is timely for the marketplace and necessary in guiding corporates to move in tandem with the economic transformation of the nation towards achieving a high-income economy status by 2020 that is both inclusive and sustainable. He said organisations are accountable through sustainability reporting as they measure and communicate their economic, environmental, social and governance performance and impacts – be it positive or negative. Organisations are becoming increasingly aware that their everyday activities not only impact their shareholders, but also their internal and external stakeholders, he added. "The move towards integrated reporting aims to embed sustainability into corporate strategy and financial reporting practices for organisations," he added. Meanwhile, ACCA Malaysia Advisory Committee President Dr Lukman Ibrahim said a well-designed corporate responsibility programme could boost business value by up to 11 per cent due to better sales, higher shareholder value and improved employee productivity. He said according to a Project Return-On-Investment report, those with lingering doubts could look to companies listed in the FTSE-4-Good index. "Globally, these companies record a return of 15.5 per cent over a three-year period compared with 14.7 per cent posted by companies listed in their country benchmarks," he said. Since 1990, ACCA has been actively involved with the unfolding debate on corporate social responsibility. "And through our awards programme, we have been promoting transparency and best practices, with the aim of helping organisations realise the growing importance of sustainability to their business," Lukman said. --BERNAMA