Bursa Malaysia and the London Stock Exchange Group will roll out a centralised sustainability reporting platform from next month to help companies calculate the impact of their carbon emissions, Malaysia’s prime minister said.
The platform is also expected to help firms, including unlisted small-to-medium enterprises, to disclose environmental, social or governance (ESG) data in line with established global standards, Anwar Ibrahim told an annual investor conference.
“This platform has the potential to be a key enabler to Malaysia’s pivot to green, and to support our sustainable development, while creating high-skilled jobs for our progress towards a high-income nation,” Anwar, who is also finance minister, said at the Invest Malaysia conference on Wednesday.
The announcement comes as Malaysian companies look to improve their ESG practices, amid new European Union laws on deforestation and sustainability that could restrict the use of Malaysian commodities such as palm oil.
Anwar also said a planned capital gains tax on unlisted shares will not apply to listed shares or initial public offerings in Malaysia, in response to investor concerns over the proposal.
Last month, Anwar said the government was considering implementing a capital gains tax “at a low rate” for the disposal of unlisted shares by companies from 2024.
The proposal was among a rash of measures announced in Malaysia’s 2023 budget aimed at expanding the government’s revenue base, though Anwar ruled out implementing a broad-based goods and services tax.
Reuters