2020 has unwittingly proved the significance of financial and
non-financial risks in assessing resilience. Sustainable companies
are seen to be able to stand through the economic turmoil with
higher resistance, or at least did not deteriorate as badly as
others. Due to this, more heads are turning towards the importance
of the environmental, social and governance
("ESG") criteria in the investment
decision-making process and portfolio management.
ESG has emerged as an area of focus for governments, regulators,
financial institutions and commercial organisations around the
world even before the coronavirus spread around the globe like a
wildfire. In Malaysia, Bursa Malaysia in partnership with FTSE
Russell launched the FTSE4Good ESG Index in 2014 with the aim of
providing more visibility and profiling of ESG-compliant companies.
Bursa Malaysia has also came out with the Sustainability Reporting
Guide in 2015 to guide listed issuers on how to embed
sustainability in
