CelcomDigi announces five-year ESG strategy to strengthen sustainability

SHAH ALAM – CelcomDigi Berhad (CelcomDigi) has announced its five-year Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategy, focusing on four key priorities to build an inclusive, sustainable, and trusted digital society.

This strategy highlights the company's commitment to addressing both short- and long-term sustainability issues within the telecommunications sector.

At its inaugural ESG Day 2024 summit, CelcomDigi said these priorities feature a balance between building positive outcomes for society, managing environmental impact for a cleaner future and operating its business responsibly.

Priority areas are benchmarked against global ESG standards such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), and the GSMA’s ESG Metrics for the mobile industry.

These priorities include enabling inclusive and safe digital access for all Malaysians, maintaining a sustainable value chain, building a good governance and performance culture and managing environmental impact and actions.

CelcomDigi Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Datuk Idham Nawawi said his team played a critical role in connecting people and businesses as the country’s largest telecommunications operator.

"Driven by the principle of empowerment through access, we have focused deeply on delivering a wide-reaching, high-quality network, that enables the use of a range of services and applications in a safe and affordable manner – key tenets to building a thriving digital society.

"Equally important is our obligation to conduct our business responsibly and we have a strong focus on all areas where we have an impact on society, expectations of stakeholders to deliver, and a duty to uphold high standards of corporate governance," he said in ESG Day 2024 summit programme held in CelcomDigi Hub, today.

He further said that CelcomDigi had initiated extensive integration and transformation activities, including modernising the network, IT infrastructure, data centres, cybersecurity, retail and brand.

"A key lever in delivering our strategy lies is realising the scale and synergy benefits of our merger. We have commenced extensive integration and transformation activities across the business, including the integration and modernisation of our nationwide network and IT infrastructure, data centre modernisation, cybersecurity enhancements, establishing the CelcomDigi AI Experience Centre (AiX), and retail and brand transformation, among others.

"Specifically, modernising our network with the latest energy-efficient and renewable energy capabilities will in particular facilitate an important element in our transition to low-carbon operations.

"Additionally, we continue to invest in a broad range of community programmes to mitigate social risks and advance digital empowerment, such as Anti-Scam, Safe Internet, Future Skills, and Vendor Development initiatives. With these combined investments, we are confident in meeting our ESG commitments over the next five years," he added.

Building trust in the age of digital-everything CelcomDigi today also launched its National Scam Awareness Survey 2024 report during the summit as part of its ongoing war against scams and fraudulent activities that have become one of the most pressing social epidemics today.

Addressing this problem is crucial in building and maintaining trust in the age of digital-everything, and the report provides comprehensive data and actionable insights for media, enforcement agencies, the government, and the public to increase vigilance and tailor educational initiatives that can address specific gaps in scam awareness and protection measures.

The nationwide survey polled 10,893 respondents from low-income communities to gauge their level of understanding and resilience or vulnerability towards scams.

Key areas surveyed include experience with scams, knowledge on scam tactics, and preventive measures including personal data protection, and awareness on 997 hotline of the National Scam Response Centre.

"As a company that serves over 20 million customers, we have a responsibility to protect the safety and security of our customers. In this war against scam, our mission is clear – to ACT, that is to create Awareness, drive Compliance to high security and safety standards internally while supporting enforcement agencies, and leverage Technology advancements to build safeguards against cybercrime.

"Guided by the report, we can strategically direct our efforts to address this epidemic, strengthen trust, and foster a more secure digital environment for Malaysians.

"We believe that large-scale action through partnerships is key to winning this war and continue to advocate a whole-of-society approach to combat scams and fraud more effectively," Idham said.

Discussing this topic in depth, the company’s ESG Day 2024 summit featured a panel session with Commercial Crime Investigations Department Assistant Director ACP Lai Lee Ching, Bank Negara Malaysia BNMLINK Manager Vijayadurai Singgatore and Malaysiakini Head of Operations Tham Seen Hau.

The summit also showcased key ESG initiatives championed in collaboration with various partners including PDRM, Unicef, Arus Academy, NaDi, and technology partners.