RHB Islamic Bank (RHB Islamic) and Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT) held a joint three-day summit from the 14th to the 16th July 2022 in Terengganu, entering the next phase of their partnership to enhance awareness on marine preservation. The summit focused on both RHB Islamic’s and UMT’s emphasis on marine conservation through research and development, knowledge transfer, environmental awareness programs and ocean literacy preservation activities. The collaborative effort contributes to SDG 14 of life below water and SDG 13 of climate change.
“Our efforts in the conservation of the marine ecosystem will contribute towards regulating climate and reducing climate change impact. This is in line with the group’s sustainability aspirations under our group’s Five-Year (2022–2026) Sustainability Strategy and Roadmap. We will continue to promote and inculcate the importance of protecting the ocean ecosystem among local communities as well as our employees. Our efforts aim to create a ripple effect towards ensuring a clean, healthy and thriving ocean and planet over the long term,” Adissadikin Ali, the managing director and CEO of RHB Islamic Bank, commented.
The summit addressed the importance of marine protection and preservation through various ocean-themed activities, such as scuba diving sessions to locate potential underwater sites for upcoming sustainability initiatives and a seabed-cleaning dive. The bank ran a financial literacy workshop for children in conjunction with the summit attended by over 100 primary school students and their parents to promote a financially literate society and responsible financial behavior. A beach clean-up was also carried out as a practical way to demonstrate the importance of preserving the marine ecosystem.
“This partnership will provide a synergy for UMT to convey messages related to the sustainability of aquatic resources broadly, especially to RHB Bank’s large group of clients and business associates. We hope that this collaboration between UMT and RHB Islamic Bank will ramp up our efforts to improve the ocean literacy of our nationals and help UMT to achieve our mission on becoming the country’s leading and globally respected marine-focused university”, said Dr Mazlan Abd Ghaffar, the vice-chancellor of UMT.
The marine-themed activities carried out through the partnership are an integral part of the bank’s ‘Ocean Harmoni’ initiative under its value-based intermediation efforts. RHB Islamic has been actively promoting marine conservation and environmental sustainability. It introduced Malaysia’s first eco-friendly recycled plastic debit card with World Wide Fund-Malaysia and UMT. The bank has a number of other programs in the pipeline under the initiative.