Resident Coordinator's speech: Launch of the Malaysia SDG Investor Map: Investing for a Better Future

Honorable Senator Tengku Datuk Seri Utama Zafrul bin Tengku Abdul Aziz, Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry;

Datuk Bahria Mohd Tamil, Deputy Secretary General (Investment), Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry;

Mr Niloy Banerjee, Resident Representative of UNDP in Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei Darussalam;

Ladies and gentlemen, good morning to you all.

It is with profound honor and gratitude that I stand before this esteemed audience.  I am humbled by the trust and confidence placed in the United Nations to accompany Malaysia in this journey of shared insights, transformative ideas, and collective action to achieve the SDGs.

I commend the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry, and the Malaysian Investment Development Authority, for their work with the UN Development Programme on this vitally important initiative – the development of an SDG Investor Map, which offers a platform enabling identification of SDG-aligned investment opportunities.   

This is a component of the wider Integrated National Financing Framework programme under the global Joint SDG Fund, coordinated with the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Economy and bringing together three UN agencies to offer technical expertise on various interlocking components. 

INFF projects have been implemented in 69 countries since 2020, developing more than 250 financing reforms to help UN Member States.  We are very proud of Malaysia’s engagement in this global effort.

First, and foremost, the Investor Map is a prescient and timely intervention.  Every post-pandemic analysis of SDG progress – at global, regional, and national level – shows that SDG achievement, including for Malaysia, is at risk. 

Whereas we were collectively off-track before Covid-19, we now see severe retrenchment and even reversals.  Geopolitical events and the knock-on economic impacts, and the existential threats posed by climate change have made the position still more problematic.

We need urgent, scalable and multi-stakeholder action to dramatically accelerate SDG progress.

Mobilizing and allocating SDG financing has always been one of the most significant implementation constraints.  This was the rationale behind the Addis Ababa Action Agenda adopted with the SDGs in 2015.  Patchy performance since then, and the multiple crises we face, are precisely why the Secretary-General has called for a new global stimulus and exceptional SDG financing efforts to “rescue the SDGs”. 

This will be the main theme of the SDG Summit which will convene in New York in September.

At the heart of this is the essential recognition that SDG financing must include the marshaling of all available resources – domestic and international, public, and private.  This is coupled with the recognition that the private sector must be engaged, influenced, and incentivized to contribute to delivering the SDGs.

Our objective is to go beyond ESG efforts, by hardwiring sustainability and inclusion within business planning and practice, and by securing direct investment in SDG-aligned ventures.    

Second, I come to what is required to deliver, and how the Investor Map we are launching today can contribute to SDG achievement in Malaysia.   

To reiterate, we face a near perfect storm of pressures, the SDG are at risk, and we require transformational changes to put us back on track.  While it must be appreciated that SDG challenges exist for all member states, these vary in intensity and in character.   Therefore, we simultaneously require national Governments to deliver integrated plans which prioritize specific efforts. 

This invariably requires the identification of sectors which accelerate progress across the goals in a systemic manner.  These might include ensuring key services such as improved healthcare and education, supporting gender equality by boosting the care economy, and developing green energy and climate-proofed infrastructures. 

Financing, and the role of the private sector specifically, remains vital.  The estimated annual global shortfall in SDG financing stands at USD 3.3 trillion US Dollars.  While we do not yet have a comparable figure for Malaysia, the gap will be sizeable. 

Plugging this gap must necessarily leverage private alongside public sector resources.  This means driving equitable and sustainable growth within business activities - through the adoption of decent work practices in employment and greener forms of production; but it also requires that Malaysia’s private sector be enabled to invest in projects and ventures with high SDG pay-offs. 

Channels include public private partnerships, and blended financing models, whereby public and private financial flows are combined.

The Investor Map that we are launching today goes still further by identifying bankable opportunities for investments in commercial activities with high SDG impacts.   It also complements the growth of the impact investment market in Malaysia, enabling the building of project pipelines, sparking investor interest, and offering commercial attractive rates of return.

Third, I want to say a few words about the roles of the two key sets of actors in enabling win-win investments. 

For the Government, this calls for a shift away from one of direction and control to one of enabling the private sector to invest in SDG priorities, and in adopting more inclusive and sustainable business practices. 

Policies need to be crafted around reducing risks in the operating environment - chiefly by addressing political and macroeconomic risks, but also by strengthening SDG-aligned regulatory frameworks, implementing competition policies, enabling innovation, and providing infrastructure services. 

The Government also has a wider leadership role in signaling, and in making clear the commercial gains of SDG-aligned investment, the link between profitability to sustainability

For the private sector, changes are required in the way that markets identify and price the risk and returns associated with SDG impact-type investments, as major opportunities can go underpriced.   Entrepreneurs also need to become aware of the new financing streams that are available to them.   

While business leaders are increasingly acknowledging sustainability and inclusion can deliver long-term financial success, new entrants, mechanisms, and innovations will be needed. 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is important that we continue to play a catalytic role in guiding the development of mechanisms to support private sector SDG investment. 

This means rendering technical assistance and policy advice, and crucially bringing rigor to the development of twin investment rationales around securing financial returns, alongside social and environmental impacts. I reiterate the UN’s commitment to supporting your efforts.

I end by commending the Investor Map as offering exciting new opportunities for Malaysian investors and businesses.  And I specifically encourage investors and entrepreneurs to seize these opportunities and to "do well by doing good."

Thank you