Kuala Lumpur: United Overseas Bank (Malaysia) Bhd (UOB Malaysia) has partnered with Bursa Malaysia Bhd to support small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in adopting sustainable practices and advancing their decarbonisation journey.

According to BERNAMA News Agency, in a joint statement, UOB Malaysia and Bursa Malaysia said SMEs participating in the bank's sustainability accelerator programme 2.0 (SAP 2.0) will have access to the bourse's centralised sustainability intelligence (CSI) solution under this collaboration. They said the access would reduce the complexities of emissions calculation and facilitate the uptake of relevant decarbonisation solutions.

UOB Malaysia's chief executive officer (CEO) Ng Wei Wei said that in addition to enhanced suites of SME-centric solutions available via the SAP 2.0, the bank would fund Bursa's CSI solution's subscription fees for its SME clients. Ng highlighted that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reporting can be a daunting aspect of the decarbonisation journey, and by lowering this barrier and helping them calculate and report their GHG emissions more effectively, they hope to empower more SMEs to transition. Ng expressed the belief that strong public-private collaboration is essential to help businesses decarbonise.

According to the statement, the collaboration aims to better equip participating SMEs to meet growing sustainability demands from stakeholders, including large customers like multinational corporations and public-listed companies (PLCs), for GHG emissions data for their 'Scope 3' supply chain emissions reporting.

Meanwhile, Bursa Malaysia's CEO Datuk Fad'l Mohamed said this collaboration marks a significant step forward in expanding its CSI ecosystem to benefit a wider group of companies. Fad'l stated that just as their CSI solution has empowered PLCs to meet disclosure obligations and guide their decarbonisation, they are now extending the same capabilities to SMEs, enabling them to progress on their sustainability journey.