Noorida (centre) receiving the Silver rating award from Michele (left), witnessed by Chairman and Executive Director of NCSR, Ali Darwin (right).
KOTA KINABALU: Suria Capital Holdings Berhad (Suria Capital) has won Silver Ranking for its first Sustainability Report in the Asia Sustainability Reporting Rating (ASRRAT) 2019.
“The company felt very honoured and proud to receive the silver ranking award considering it is our first Sustainability Report incorporating Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards where we competed with local and international companies from other countries such as Indonesia, Singapore, The Philippines and Bangladesh,” said Suria Capital Group Managing Director, Ng Kiat Min in a statement.
“Besides winning the award, we also gained independent opinion on how we in SuriaGroup had successfully communicated the Group’s economic, social and environmental commitments to the stakeholders through the Sustainability Report and showcased how much the Group had contributed to the achievement of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” she added.
“Going forward, our hope is to improve on our reporting standard, as we take into consideration the growing importance of sustainable business practices and activities of SuriaGroup,” said Ng.
As the mandated port operator of Sabah since the port privatisation exercise, Suria Capital through its subsidiary Sabah Ports Sdn Bhd, had initiated various port development programmes to contribute to the current and future economic growth of Sabah while emphasizing on the sustainability of the State’s economy in the form of providing ports with the necessary and modern facilities to promote global connectivity and providing employment to the local community throughout our operations in Sabah.
In realising the responsibility towards preserving the environment, the Group has been implementing its special Green Port policy and various programmes for its port operations. The efforts are aimed at reducing the negative impact of port activities to the environment. The policy emphasises on the applications of Green Technology and to manage the usage of energy resources, noise level, waste management and sea-water quality. Since the commissioning of modern port equipment such as e-Rubber-tried gantry (e-RTG), the ports had reduced the release of carbon footprint to the environment quite significantly. For the concerted efforts, Sapangar Bay Container Port won the prestigious Green Port Award System 2019 for Malaysia held in Peru recently.
The Group’s property development projects, which preserve the picturesque waterfront and promoted as green development, are poised to elevate the status of Kota Kinabalu port land into a new city growth focus which bodes well with the State’s thrust to promote Sabah as an investment destination in the region.
Suria Capital also places special interest in supporting the surrounding community particularly through rural education and social well-being, targeted at underprivileged rural communities in the interior. The company had been involved in community water projects by improving water supply system for rural villages in remote areas of Sabah.
The Sustainability Reporting has been made compulsory by Bursa Malaysia for public-listed companies.
Suria Capital’s Chief Financial Officer, Noorida Baharuddin represented the company to receive the award from Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) ASEAN Hub’s Regional Head, Michele Lemmens during the event in Bali, Indonesia recently.
The Asia Sustainability Reporting Rating was initiated by National Center for Sustainability Reporting (NCSR), based in Indonesia to acknowledge and appreciate companies that have made sustainability report and communicate corporate performance through the economics, social and environmental perspectives. The event has been organised since 2005 and the year 2019 marked the 15th year NCSR formalised the acknowledgement and appreciation to companies that have produced a Sustainability Report (SR).