Resident Coordinator's Message to the Uniting Business Sustainability in ASEAN Forum—UN Global Compact Leaders Summit 2022

Global Compact partners from across ASEAN, ESCAP colleagues, business leaders and friends,

It’s a pleasure join you today at the UN Global Compact’s Leaders’ Summit looking forward to greater partnership between business and the UN in ASEAN.

I want to start with clear recognition of how important the private sector is to advance the SDGs and climate action, embedding the concept of sustainability not just in business but in society and our relationship with the environment as well.

The private sector is uniquely situated to drive progress, which is reflected in the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework guiding all of the UN’s work in Thailand over the next five years.

During the recent visit of the UN Deputy Secretary-General to Thailand, she emphasized how the private sector has helped to co-design the SDGs, keeping progress going even when governments were slow to act.

The Global Compact local networks in ASEAN have emerged as important interlocutors at the country level to take this message of sustainability to the wider private sector, SMEs, bankers, investors, and other economic actors.

The UN relies on our close partnerships with the 15 local Global Compact networks in Asia, that have a strong track record in mobilizing local businesses.

For UN Thailand, the partnership with the GCNT has already seen reduced annual carbon emissions by 7 million tons, or 2% of national GHG emissions.

Most members of the compact set net-zero carbon emissions for 2050 that are more ambitious than those of ASEAN governments. This is timely as ESCAP also takes forward the Asia Pacific Green Deal for Business declaration.

The partnership has been expanded to include Thailand’s financial sector to scale up commitments to the Principles of Responsible Investing and Principles of Responsible Banking, with 23 asset managers and investors and 13 banks respectively as prospective signatories.

In Malaysia, coordination with the UN has been formalized in the Malaysia SDG Fund, which we are looking to replicate through a national Pooled Funding Mechanism for the SDGs in Thailand capitalized by the government and private sector.

As discussed during this forum, we need to continue to focus on SMEs and sustainability across the supply chain, including comprehensive research on the SME terrain, the winners and losers in this transformation for sustainability, and the structural supports that will be most effective.

This extends across the private sector as the large cooperates can’t do business without SMEs, and these upward and downward linkages have to be built into sustainability strategies.

In the Philippines, the local network has worked closely with UN improving safety and health through supply chains, recognizing the important role that businesses can play.

I am glad to see the UN Global Compact launch its SME Toolkit to mainstream sustainability, and I’m confident that Local Networks in ASEAN will make good use of it.

We also need further progress on “social sustainability” and gender equity in the private sector. Thailand leads with 24% of CEOs and 43% of CFOs being women, but our partners tell us that systemic biases remain such as access to financing.

In Indonesia, the private sector has been championing women’s leadership through Ring the Bell for Gender Equality collaboration between the UN and the Indonesia Business Coalition for Women Empowerment, and the Stock Exchange, to set ambitious targets for women’s representation and leadership.

And lastly, with global momentum on the Convention on Biological Diversity, the private sector in ASEAN needs to step forward as UN “champions of biodiversity” to lead protecting species, and habitats while leveraging technology and innovation.

At the regional level, we also need to get better at addressing air and plastic pollution by bringing to bear science-based technical assistance, such as ESCAP’s use of satellite technology for chemical fingerprinting of smoke to pinpoint pollution sources and provide the granular evidence for data-based policy.

This kind of science-based partnership with government and private sector leveraging our respective expertise will be key to addressing our interconnected challenges.

Thank you again to the organizers for bringing together the key stakeholders, including the ESCAP Sustainable Business Network and Global Compact. I look forward to building on these discussions.