Sustainable Trade and Investment in the Indo-Pacific

To be competitive for trade within the global value chains of international brands, and attract investment from institutional investors, both companies and governments in emerging markets need to show they have sustainability risks in hand. Sustainability reporting is the best way to do so, and using the global standard for reporting ensures the data reported is credible and usable.

Our ‘Sustainable Trade and Investment through Reporting’ (STIR) program aims to increase market transparency and build sustainability reporting capacity in the Indo-Pacific region.  

Supported by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), the ‘Sustainable Trade and Investment through Reporting’ (STIR) program aims to increase corporate transparency on social and environmental impacts to drive sustainable trade and investment in the Indo-Pacific region. This will ultimately contribute to greater stability and reduced poverty in the region. 

With the STIR program GRI: 

• Supports the capacity of listed companies to disclose their sustainability impacts
• Promotes a reporting environment conducive to transparency, by engaging market regulators and stock exchanges in the region. 

The envisioned impact of the program is that transparent markets and supply chains enable companies to identify and reduce sustainability risks, communicate credibly and effectively about their performance, and thereby attract investment and increase their competitiveness for trade.

The STIR program runs from July 2020 – June 2022. Some of the results and resources produced so far are listed below:

Results 

• Published the 2020 Sustainability Reporting Trends in South Asia, which considers the reporting landscape in the region for the 2014 – 2019 period and analyzes the extent to which various disclosure initiatives are being used by companies in each country.
• GRI organized the second Asian Roundtable Discussion in November 2020. The roundtable provided a venue for stock exchanges and regulators to share the measures they have taken to keep the capital markets afloat amidst the Covid-19 pandemic as well as other ongoing sustainability programs, including steps taken on wider adoption of sustainability reporting practices and how these can support the process of building a resilient market.
• GRI held a three-day virtual summit on 23-25 November 2020 that covered relevant supply chain topics. The summit was co-presented with the Procurement and Supply Institute of Asia (PASIA)
  
• GRI developed ESG related guidance documents for listed companies on the Colombo (CSE) and Dhaka (DSE) Stock Exchanges. 
• GRI provided technical input into the Filipino Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sustainability reporting Guidelines for Publicly Listed Companies (issued February 2019).  
• Over 70 capacity-building workshops held for Publicly Listed Companies on sustainability reporting since 2017. 
• 55% increase in downloads of the GRI Standards across the five target countries since 2017.  

Resources 

• GRI and Deloitte (2021). CEO Survey: The Role of CEOs in Advancing Sustainability and ESG in Indonesia (Supported by the Australian government, GRI and Deloitte conducted a survey engaging 138 CEOs to explore the sustainability initiatives, priorities, and leadership commitment of CEOs in Indonesia).
• Video (2021) ‘Value of ESG disclosure: Perspective from GRI & Colombo Stock Exchange’ to sensitize investors in Sri Lanka on ESG and the GRI Standards is available on YouTube.
• Video (2021) of GRI’s work with the Dhaka Stock Exchange to drive sustainability reporting uptake in Bangladesh is available on YouTube.
• Publication (2020): Sustainability Reporting Trends in South Asia (Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka) (download from the 'Related documents' section below)
• Topic-specific Toolkit (2019): Advancing modern slavery reporting to meet stakeholder expectations. (Download from the 'Related documents' section below) 
• ESG Guidance Document (2019): Guidance on Sustainability Reporting for Listed Companies in Bangladesh 
• ESG Guidance Document (2019): Communicating Sustainability: Six recommendations for listed Companies 
• Overview (2017): Working with governments for global impact - Improving lives across the Indo-Pacific