Their Majesties King Abdullah II and Queen Rania in Malaysia

(Office of Her Majesty – Press Department – Kuala Lumpur) - Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah attended a Special Silver Book Roundtable, Thursday, to discuss the role of the private sector in nation building and encourage the Malaysian CEOs to share their best practices and lessons learnt in the field with their Arab counterparts.

Queen Rania, who is accompanying His Majesty King Abdullah on an official visit to Malaysia, praised the economic transformation of the country over the past few years. The Silver Book, which was launched in late 2006, is one of the initiatives under the Government-Linked Company Transformation Program, a program developed to promote high performing government-linked companies (GLCs). 

The Silver Book provides guidelines for companies to incorporate corporate responsibility into their corporate strategies and core businesses in line with ensuring sustainability of their organizations, the society and the environment.

In the meeting, which was attended by several CEOs and senior management of the GLCs, public listed companies and leading non-governmental organizations and organized by Khazanah National Berhad and Caux Round Table Malaysia, Queen Rania reviewed the state of corporate social responsibility in the Arab world, noting that the region has seen an increase in companies getting involved in social development.  

“We need to change our frame of mind to move from charity to social investing,” she said as she discussed the formation of the Arab Sustainability Leadership Group (ASLG), which she launched in Amsterdam several weeks ago. 

The group will accelerate the regional uptake of sustainability management and reporting through leadership and advocacy; and will play an instrumental role in communicating at the global level progress on sustainability in the Arab world, and dialogue between the Arab world and rest of the world on key global sustainability challenges. Her Majesty invited the attendees to contact and collaborate with the ASLG.  

They discussed several other initiatives including PINTAR (Promoting Intelligence, Nurturing Talent and Advocating Responsibility), Malaysia’s school adoption initiative. Her Majesty shared with the attendees the ideas behind Madrasati, Queen Rania’s comprehensive public private partnership plan to renovate 500 of Jordan’s schools. 

Her Majesty encouraged the sharing of information and lessons learnt amongst the Malaysian attendees and their Arab counterparts, noting that while single sector interventions have had some success, the region is seeing more multi-sector partnerships and collaborations because those will have the most impact. 

Several of the attendees emphasized the importance gearing corporate social responsibility goals strategically and in line with their core businesses. The discussion also emphasized the role of governments in creating the right environment for these partnerships to develop.