Sustainability awareness among Malaysian corporates is on par with other developing markets as the push for environmental, social and governance (ESG) efforts among stakeholders and investors become more prominent. The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the green concept among corporates despite it still being relatively new to the local market. Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd VP Thong Pak Leng said ESG efforts in the country are gradually improving, mainly due to demands from stakeholders who are more aware of ESG values in investing. “Malaysian ESG is on par with other developing nations. I think overall, our ESG is improving due to the pressure of many institutional investors and other stakeholders. The main challenge is most companies are still growing whereby most of their resources will be allocated to their expansion plans. I believe once companies reach a certain size or scale, their ESG will improve,” he told The Malaysian Reserve (TMR) recently. Among the principles introduced to enhance ESG efforts among corporates is the Sustainability Framework launched by Bursa Malaysia Bhd in 2015 which led to mandatory sustainability reporting for large-cap companies.

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