Perkukuh will sharpen Khazanah's role

Khazanah Nasional Bhd is ready to build upon and strengthen its role to invest and deliver sustainable value for Malaysians. The sovereign wealth fund said this was in line with the government's Perkukuh Pelaburan Rakyat (Perkukuh) initiative launched by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin today. Khazanah said it was among the contributors to the formulation of Perkukuh, which saw extensive consultation by the government with multiple stakeholders in developing the various recommendations. This was to ensure the Malaysian economy would come out stronger and better from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Khazanah.

With Perkukuh, Khazanah said it would sharpen its focus and enhance the clarity of its mandate with greater accountability of its development investing. through clear development-specific target outcomes and key performance indicators, in addition to its existing financial targets. This includes targets such as improvements to household income, creation of high-value employment and other socioeconomic target outcomes. Khazanah said it would focus on high impact and commercially viable investments to catalyse new growth areas, build Malaysia's economic competitiveness, and increase national resilience while driving priority socio-economic outcomes.

Khazanah was the first Malaysian institution to be a signatory to the United Nations-backed Principles for Responsible Investment and was a founding member of the Institutional Investors Council Malaysia. It added that both signatories underline Khazanah's public commitment to being a sustainable and responsible investor. "Khazanah will build upon our Responsible Investment Policy, which outlines our philosophy on ESG as well as our approach for integrating ESG considerations into the investment decision-making processes. "Moving forward, we will look to actively engage more with our investee companies and place emphasis on material ESG issues, to ensure that those issues are appropriately managed. " Khazanah said it would continue to play a key role in contributing to socio-economic and social protections through various corporate responsibility platforms.