By Shuba Karun, Head of ESG & Sustainability, Strategy and Policy, MDEC,
I have mentioned previously that the COVID-19 pandemic has been a wake-up call for all of us and that it has rightly focused attention on the actions we all need to take to build a more inclusive and sustainable digital economy for our nation. This is something that each one of us at MDEC takes very seriously.
For some time, MDEC has aligned all our activities with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as these provide a solid framework for generating real impact.
In recent years, we have focused over 95% of all our activities on four specific SDGs: Quality Education, Decent Work & Economic Growth, Industry, Innovation & Infrastructure and Reduced Inequalities.
However, we at MDEC fully recognise the increasing role that Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) principles and practices will play in ensuring the future growth and competitiveness of our digital economy and are committed to doing more by raising substantially our sustainability ambitions.
With the establishment of a new ESG and Sustainability Department within MDEC, we are beefed up to take this ambitious agenda forward. To achieve this, we are taking a two-pronged approach.
Firstly, it is critical that we demonstrate our commitment by “walking the talk” by adopting ESG principles and practices internally within MDEC.
As a first step, in line with international best practice, we are commissioning an independent, evidence-based Materiality Assessment to identify and assess potential ESG issues that could affect MDEC and our stakeholders.
By analysing and condensing these issues into a prioritised short-list of topics, the Materiality Assessment will form our ESG roadmap for the future, informing our strategy, targets, and reporting.
Secondly, we know that sustainability is an issue that many tech businesses care about deeply. We believe that the most significant contribution MDEC can make to addressing this is by raising awareness and understanding of ESG issues amongst companies across our ecosystem to accelerate take-up, thereby ensuring their ongoing resilience and prosperity.
To achieve this, we will be working with a number of like-minded partners to secure industry commitment to ESG, including pledges to deliver concrete action to reduce climate impact, in line with the Government’s aspiration toward becoming a low-carbon nation. We will be making an announcement about this soon.
I am excited and looking forward to working with you all on this global challenge.