ASEAN Interconnected Sustainability Ecosystem

The stock exchanges of Malaysia (Bursa Malaysia), Indonesia (IDX), Thailand (SET), and Singapore (SGX Group) are teaming up to drive sustainable development across the region through a collaboration on the ASEAN-Interconnected Sustainability Ecosystem (ASEAN-ISE). This initiative aims to integrate common Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) metrics into their respective data infrastructures.

In a collective statement, the exchanges announced that the ASEAN-ISE initiative was formalised during a recent meeting between the Partner Exchanges, agreeing on the foundational governance structure and operational blueprint for building the inter-connected sustainability ecosystem. Bursa Malaysia will act as the secretariat to oversee the successful implementation of the ASEAN-ISE objectives.

The desired outcomes of the ASEAN-ISE initiative encompass:

Establishing an integrated ESG ecosystem to advance sustainable development within ASEAN.
Facilitating Participating Exchanges in achieving cost efficiency and faster time-to-market with fit-for-purpose solutions.
Empowering Participating Exchanges to actively support ESG-compliant companies in optimizing their business value through quality disclosures. This entails creating infrastructure solutions to streamline cross-border trade, linking corporate supply chains to ESG-focused investment funds, and offering suppliers access to good ESG practices and disclosure to secure more competitive financing rates.

Bursa Malaysia CEO Datuk Muhamad Umar Swift expressed the vision for an inclusive ecosystem where ASEAN's participating exchanges operate a reliable and fundamentally aligned data infrastructure, supported by modular and cost-effective solutions tailored to specific market conditions.

The participating exchanges will convene again to finalize implementation details and formalize the Governance Framework and Operating Structure of the ASEAN-ISE at the 37th ASEAN Exchanges CEOs Meeting scheduled for July 2024 in Malaysia.

Click here to read more about the ASEAN-ISE initiative.

Adopted from The Star (15 Feb 2024)

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