KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian public-listed companies now have a new raison d’etre apart from the traditional purpose of making profits and providing good returns for shareholders.
They are now expected to be involved in nation building, and to become more digitally-enabled, according to two newly released guidebooks by Bursa Malaysia Bhd.
The stock exchange regulator launched the final two digital guidebooks under the public-listed companies (PLCs) transformation programme, aimed at transforming Malaysian PLCs into “high-performing” organisations.
Chairman Abdul Wahid Omar said Guidebook 4, “Being Digitally Enabled”, focuses on the imperatives, opportunities and benefits for businesses to become more digitally-enabled. This can lead to significant improvements in their overall performance, in line with technological advancements.
Guidebook 5, “Contributing Towards Nation Building”, emphasises how the growth initiatives of businesses can fundamentally and profoundly benefit not only the companies themselves, but also directly shape the growth of the economy, community and nation.
“With targeted strategies that are aligned to their respective business purpose and national agendas, PLCs can be more competitive, enhance capabilities of our workforce, and help our nation have stronger standing in global supply chains,” he said in remarks at the launch of the PLC transformation programme’s latest guidebooks here today.
He said these last two books are timely as the two-year Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated how digitally enabled and agile businesses not only survived but thrived amid difficult times.
“Our PLCs’ earnings performance, as measured by growth in Malaysia’s index earnings per share (EPS) has been muted since the global financial crisis. Earnings fell to a 10-year low in 2020 and only began to recover last year.
“Similarly, Malaysia’s weightage in the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) Emerging Markets Index has been generally declining since 2019, negatively impacting our ability to capture larger fractions of global funds.
“Nonetheless, we are glad that our weightage has recently increased to 1.62% in October 2022, up from 1.39% in 2021,” he said.
Therefore, he said, the PLCs clearly need to take deliberate and committed actions to improve their performance.
He urged all PLCs to actively participate in the PLC transformation programme’s upcoming planned activities which span multiple years, up to 2025.
To date, more than 100 PLCs have committed to participate in the programme.
Bursa Malaysia launched the PLC transformation programme in March, aiming to steer and support corporate Malaysia to higher performance levels by nudging actions and strengthening the growth narrative of PLCs of all sizes.
The first guidebook focused on building purpose and performance-driven organisations; the second was on sustainable, socially responsible and ethical practises; and the third guidebook was on strengthening stakeholder management and investor relations.
All five digital guidebooks are now available for download on the Bursa website, as a resource for all PLCs and even private companies, especially small and medium enterprises.
Source: https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/business/2022/12/05/bursa-malaysia-wants-listed-companies-to-assist-in-nation-building/