KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia Bhd
(Bursa Malaysia) has launched the final two digital guidebooks under the Public-Listed Companies (PLCs) Transformation programme, aimed at transforming Malaysian PLCs into high-performing organisations.
Chairman Tan Sri Abdul Wahid Omar said Guidebook 4, "Being Digitally Enabled”, focuses on the imperatives, opportunities, and benefits for businesses to become more digitally-enabled, which can lead to significant improvements in their overall performance, in line with technological advancements.
Meanwhile, Guidebook 5, "Contributing Towards Nation Building”, emphasises how the growth initiatives of businesses can fundamentally and profoundly benefit not only the companies themselves, but also directly shape the growth of the economy, community and nation.
"With targeted strategies that are aligned to their respective business purpose and national agendas, PLCs can be more competitive, enhance capabilities of our workforce, and help our nation have stronger standing in global supply chains,” he said in his welcoming remarks at the launch of the PLC Transformation Programme’s latest guidebooks here today.
He said these last two books are timely as the two-year COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated how digitally enabled and agile businesses not only survived but thrived amid difficult times.
"Our PLCs’ earnings performance, as measured by growth in Malaysia’s Index earnings per share (EPS) has been muted since the global financial crisis. Earnings fell to a 10-year low in 2020 and only began to recover last year.
"Similarly, Malaysia’s weightage in the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) Emerging Markets Index has been generally declining since 2019, negatively impacting our ability to capture larger fractions of global funds.
"Nonetheless, we are glad that our weightage has recently increased to 1.62 per cent in October 2022, up from 1.39 per cent in 2021,” he said.
Therefore, he said, the PLCs clearly need to take deliberate and committed actions to improve their performance.
He urged all PLCs to actively participate in the PLC Transformation Programme's upcoming planned activities which span multiple years, up to 2025.
To date, more than 100 PLCs have committed to participate in the PLC Transformation Programme.
Bursa Malaysia launched the PLC Transformation Programme in March, aiming to steer and support Corporate Malaysia to higher performance levels by nudging actions and strengthening the growth narrative of PLCs of all sizes.
The first guidebook focused on building purpose and performance-driven organisations; the second was on sustainable, socially responsible and ethical practises; and the third guidebook was on strengthening stakeholder management and investor relations.
All five digital guidebooks are now available for download on the Bursa Malaysia website, as a resource for all PLCs and even private companies, especially the small and medium enterprises. - Bernama
