Jessica Chew Cheng Lian: Opening remarks - World Bank's Sustainable ExchangE Development Series (SEEDS) Opening remarks by Ms Jessica Chew Cheng Lian, Assistant Governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia (Bank Negara Malaysia), at the World Bank's Sustainable ExchangE Development Series (SEEDS), 25 October 2021. * * * Good morning. It is a privilege and pleasure to be a part of this year’s edition of the World Bank’s webinar series on sustainable finance. We are grateful to the World Bank for organising this programme. Learning from our peers continues to be one of the most important and practical ways in which we can help each other effect meaningful change to ensure that finance truly serves our communities. The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have now been with us for almost two years. While ambitions to pursue sustainable finance goals started well before the pandemic, the pandemic will surely be remembered as a defining period in shaping the path taken to a more sustainable future. The pandemic has extracted an enormous toll not only on global health, but also on poverty levels and inequality. More vulnerable groups, including those who earn lower incomes, have lower levels of education, or are holding less secure jobs, have borne a disproportionate brunt of the fallout from the pandemic. While policy measures are helping to mitigate these effects in the short term, the longer lasting impact on society and future economic prospects are likely to be far more significant. This could amplify pre-existing inequalities, particularly in emerging economies.
The world around us is changing so rapidly, and the challenges we face so multi-faceted, that our best hope for creating sensible financial policy and effective conditions for sustainable development must lie in working together. This has certainly been our experience in Malaysia, particularly in recent periods. Let me just mention three of these partnerships. In Islamic and sustainable finance, the Value-based Intermediation Community of Practitioners or VBI COP has played a key role in driving the industry-wide implementation of VBI principles. The COP has been instrumental in developing practical frameworks, tools and guidance that have 2/3  BIS central bankers' speeches  been widely adopted by the industry in supporting the offering value-based financial solutions that are aligned with the SDGs. As an example, for green finance, the Islamic banking industry is supporting approximately 4,500 renewable energy and green projects worth more than USD2.2 billion. On climate, the Bank and Securities Commission Malaysia have established the Joint Committee on Climate Change or JC3 to pursue collective climate actions. The Committee brings regulators and the financial industry together to promote alignment and drive climate actions in five areas – risk management, governance and disclosures, green finance and innovation, data and capacity building. Finally, sustainable finance would ring hollow without ensuring that our communities – especially our most vulnerable communities – have the means and ability to make good financial decisions.