KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 16): Bursa Malaysia Bhd has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM) on a three-year collaboration to support small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

The collaboration contains three core initiatives which include exploring commercial opportunities for Bursa and SSM on supporting digital economy growth, data sharing, and driving environmental, social and governance (ESG) agenda in the business ecosystem, according to a joint statement issued on Wednesday (Nov 16).

The statement further noted that Bursa and SSM are able to leverage datasets to build a data ecosystem in supporting Malaysia’s economic development agenda. This platform will facilitate the development of in-depth analytics and solutions for the fundraising community in the capital market.

“Driving the ESG agenda, Bursa Malaysia and SSM will work together to encourage corporate Malaysia to focus on improving disclosures and access to capital through ESG best practices in respective industries.

“Public listed companies from financial institutions to manufacturing businesses can act as catalysts of Malaysia's economy to improve data and transparency in their supply chain,” it added.

Bursa Malaysia chief executive officer Datuk Muhamad Umar Swift said: “The MoU provides the exchange a trusted partner both in terms of improving our combined data capacity, as well as the opportunity in empowering the local business community through data and information sharing.”

“In addition to building a centralised data system that connects businesses with the funding agencies, this collaboration will allow smaller businesses to learn from best practices from larger corporations,” he added.

Meanwhile, SSM CEO Datuk Nor Azimah Abdul Aziz said through this MOU, information derived from this meaningful collaboration would be further analysed to create a holistic, inclusive and conducive data ecosystem that supports Malaysia’s overall socio-economic development agenda, especially the SMEs that make up 99% of the corporate and business entities in registries.