UOB Malaysia and Chemsain forge strategic partnership to drive sustainability agenda and green investments into Sarawak
Kuching, Sarawak, 4 March 2024 – UOB Malaysia and Chemsain Konsultant (Chemsain) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate and support Sarawak’s strong commitment towards sustainable development and transformation into a major regional green hub.
The MoU was signed at a ceremony held on 1 March 2024 and witnessed by Dato Sri Abang Haji Abdul Karim bin Tun Datuk Abang Haji Openg, President of the Sarawak Business Federation. Mr Beh Wee Khee, Managing Director and Country Head of Commercial Banking signed on behalf of UOB Malaysia while Chemsain was represented by its Director, Dr. John Chan.
The collaboration aims to support Sarawak's sustainability agenda, thereby helping local companies thrive while attracting green investments to the region through UOB Malaysia’s regional strength and Chemsain’s local expertise. Joint capacity-building programmes and workshops will be organised to focus on enhancing sustainability practices among businesses. Additionally, both parties will leverage their collective expertise and explore collaborations to develop relevant sustainable frameworks and tools tailor-made for the companies.
Mr Beh said, "We are pleased to embark on this strategic partnership with Chemsain Konsultant as we collectively support Sarawak's sustainability goals. This collaboration underscores our commitment to drive green investments and foster sustainable practices within the ASEAN region. By combining our expertise and network strength with Chemsain, we aim to empower businesses, to embrace sustainability and contribute to the building of a greener and more resilient future."
As an early green adopter, UOB has developed comprehensive and market leading sustainable finance frameworks and solutions to help companies across ASEAN decarbonise and transition to net zero. Internally, UOB achieved carbon neutrality since 2021 for its own operations, among others, reflected in its Malaysian headquarters’ having achieved platinum green certification1. Externally, the Bank has also announced its commitments to reach net zero by 20502, while actively working with corporates to support their green agenda3.
Dr. Chan said, "Chemsain is proud to have supported Sarawak's environmental and social sectors for the past four decades. We look forward to leveraging our environmental and sustainability expertise to drive impactful change across industries. We are excited to be working with a like-minded partner like UOB to accelerate sustainable adoption throughout the region.”
Chemsain is a highly experienced and reputable company within Malaysia with businesses in the areas of environmental, engineering, monitoring, laboratory services and water infrastructure, having work experience throughout the South-East Asian region. In 2022, the company pivoted to sustainability to keep pace with the market demand and landscape, anchoring various government and private sector projects in Malaysia, Brunei and making inroads to Indonesia.
1 Please refer to news release, ‘UOB Malaysia is the first bank to receive GreenRE platinum certification for its corporate headquarters’, 24 January 2024.
2 Please refer to news release, ‘UOB commits to 2050 net zero targets to support a just transition for ASEAN’, 7 November 2022.
3 Please refer to news release, ‘Sunway and UOB Malaysia ink partnership to advance net zero goal’, 8 June 2023.