KUALA LUMPUR: The Ministry of Finance (MoF) is confident that the financial sector will contribute to the success of the nation’s sustainability journey, as the ministry and its agencies have paved the way for sustainable development financing.

       Bernama quoted Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz as saying that financial institutions must work together to ensure that funds for sustainable development are available.

       “Financial institutions should embrace the sustainability agenda and deliver their commitments, whether through financing or through their operations and corporate social responsibility initiatives, such as prioritising vendors and partners who also commit to the sustainability agenda. They must also assist the government in mainstreaming the sustainability agenda across as many sectors and industries as soon as possible,” said Tengku Zafrul in his keynote address at the MARC 360: Sustainable development financing 2022 conference. His speech was read out by MoF secretary-general Datuk Seri Asri Hamidon yesterday.

       In his speech, the minister highlighted that the MoF has begun budget-tagging specific measures to ensure that various ministries spend in accordance with sustainability expectations.

       To maintain the mainstreaming process’ momentum, Tengku Zafrul said financial institutions must share key data on how each industry has “shaped up” in terms of sustainability so that future policies can be tweaked accordingly to improve climate adaptation and crisis mitigation strategies.

       They must also assist the government in enabling and improving the adaptive capacity of households and businesses, he said.

       “Apart from providing incentives, we must also remove barriers, such as lack of information and financing, as well as behavioural biases and imperfect markets – we can support the right innovation and technologies to mitigate climate and other risks if we work together to make this information available.”