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Joint remarks by Y Bhg Datin Linda Ngiam Executive Director and Group COO Star Publications (M) Bhd & Dato’ Johan Raslan, Chairman Institute of Corporate Responsibility Malaysia (ICR Malaysia)
At the Launch of the StarBiz-ICR Malaysia Corporate Responsibility Awards
Conference Hall, Securities Commission
25 Jan 2008
Yang Berhormat Dato’ Sri Effendi Norwawi
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department
Yang Berbahagia Dato’ Zarinah Anwar
Chairman of the Securities Commission Malaysia
Yang Berbahagia Dato’ Yusli Mohamed Yusof
Chief Executive Officer, Bursa Malaysia Berhad
Distinguished Panel of Judges
Tan Sri-Tan Sri, Dato’ –Dato, Datin-Datin
Members of the media
Ladies and Gentlemen
A very good morning. It is indeed a great honour for me to be up here together with Dato’ Johan to welcome all of you to the launch of the inaugural StarBiz – ICR Malaysia Corporate Responsibility Awards. We are privileged and delighted to be in a large gathering of corporate leaders and representatives from a variety of industries, who are committed to driving the corporate responsibility agenda.
We wish to take this opportunity to welcome the Honourable Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department to the Awards launch today.
Thank you, YB Dato’ Sri for taking time off your busy schedule to be with us here today to launch another milestone in Malaysia’s corporate responsibility journey.
Ladies and Gentlemen
Since its inception a little over a year ago, the Institute of Corporate Responsibility Malaysia or ICR Malaysia believes in working with valued partners in driving and strengthening the CR agenda in the country. Thus, when the Star approached us in ICR Malaysia to work together on this project, it presented a great opportunity for ICR Malaysia to work with a partner that shares the same aspirations and mission. Indeed, we are very happy to work with such a forward looking partner that also has the platform to reach out to a wider audience and able to engage and influence companies and the public on a bigger scale.
ICR Malaysia, supported by the Securities Commission, Bursa Malaysia and Khazanah Nasional as advisors, has a strong commitment to raise the level of Corporate Responsibility consciousness amongst corporate Malaysia. A key component of ICR Malaysia’s mission is to promote the development of responsible business practices among companies in Malaysia.
The report ‘Good News and Bad News’, published by UNDP (United Nations Development Program) is often used as reference to study media roles in promoting sustainability development.
And I quote…
‘Progress with sustainable development requires the involvement of all sectors of society, not just business. The media’s understanding and sustained intelligent coverage of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Sustainable Development (SD) agendas is a necessary precondition for real progress in the development.’
At the Star, we truly believe this.
We believe that the media plays a critical role in promoting the CR agenda as we have the platform to highlight, promote and analyse the CR issues for the benefit of the public. The key challenge is to find ways to tell these stories in a manner that engages, makes the connections to the ‘big picture’ and touches people’s lives.
Going beyond news reporting, the Star is committed to engage a higher level of engagement and involvement in the CR agenda. That’s why we are taking this bold step to organise these awards instead of just reporting them.
Ladies and Gentlemen
The StarBiz-ICR Malaysia Corporate Responsibility Awards is introduced to recognise and honour companies that demonstrate outstanding Corporate Responsibility (CR) practices that go beyond the community and philanthropic activities. The aim is to encourage responsible business practices with more focus on how business practices can be responsible in the ways business make their money as compared to what to do with the money once they have made it.
By emphasising the language of corporate responsibility, we wish to encourage companies to focus more on thinking about what business they are in and how they choose to operate that business.
Thinking about CR helps our businesses consider about how we go about doing the business we have chosen, and to inject responsible behaviours into the value chain.
A key component of the Awards is of course our panel of judges who are known for their passion and for being active in CR. It is our pleasure to announce our esteemed panel of judges, who have graciously accepted our invitation to undertake this huge responsibility.
Our panel of Judges are
- Y Bhg Dato Zarinah Anwar, Chairman of the Securities Commission Malaysia who has also graciously accepted our invitation to chair the judging panel
- Y Bhg Dato’ Yusli Mohamed Yusoff, CEO of Bursa Malaysia Berhad
- Y Bhg Datuk Rafiah Salim, Vice-Chancellor of University Malaya
- Y Bhg Dato’ Kok Wee Kiat, Chairman of Environmental Quality Council Malaysia
- Prof Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute
We wish to thank the EPU for endorsing the Awards.
Our deepest, deepest appreciation to Bursa Malaysia for their consent to use their comprehensive data as part of the judging process.
We would also like to thank the Securities Commission Malaysia and Khazanah Nasional for their total support.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
On behalf of The Star and ICR Malaysia, once again we would like to accord our sincerest gratitude to YB Dato’ Sri Mohd. Effendi for being here and for the kind support rendered in ensuring the success of this Awards.
We thank all of you for your presence here today and for being part of another exciting chapter in Malaysia's Corporate Responsibility journey.
Thank you. |
