Amman Stock Exchange (ASE), represented by its CEO Mr. Mazen Wathaifi, has been selected by the United Nations Sustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative (UN SSE) as chairman of the Advisory Committee on SMEs and Sustainability. The committee currently includes 60 experts from 42 global stock exchanges that are members of the UN SSE Initiative. The Committee’s mission is to provide guidance to financial markets and SMEs, and to establish foundations and standards for implementing sustainability and issues related to social, environmental and governance responsibility and related disclosure, in addition to drafting a new guidance for stock exchanges and SMEs to enhance their sustainability, which will enhance the role of the stock exchanges in supporting SMEs in their sustainability journey, taking into account the challenges and circumstances that may affect their adoption of sustainable practices.
Mr. Wathaifi presided the first meeting of the group and pointed out the increasing importance of sustainability and the necessity of implementing its three main pillars social, environmental and governance, which has become an international requirement that enhances the competitiveness, performance and confidence of companies and institutions, as well as increases demand for their products and services. Also, the information related to the extent of applying sustainability standards and principles has become important and necessary for investors to make their investment decisions, which requires the relevant stakeholders and exchanges to play an important role, especially in the field of raising awareness, providing training, facilitating the trading of green financial instruments, creating sustainability index and carbon markets, and disclosing information, opportunities and risks related to sustainability.
He emphasized that the ASE’s chairmanship of this group is a recognition by this international institution for the importance of the measures implemented by the ASE in applying the principles and standards of sustainability in the national capital market. It also represents an opportunity to introduce the ASE and enhance its competitiveness, in addition to strengthening its role in supporting sustainability in the capital market and learning about the experiences of other stock exchanges in supporting SMEs in their journey towards sustainability, pointing out that this group will provide a platform for international cooperation and exchange of expertise in this field.
It is worth mentioning that the ASE is one of the leading stock exchanges in the region with regards to sustainability, as it has taken many measures to enhance sustainability practices, achieve a more sustainable environment, and enhance the investment climate and competitiveness of the market and the listed companies. The most notable action was joining the UN SSE Initiative in March 2016, launched by the UN- Secretary general in 2009. This initiative aims to increase the transparency and commitment of listed companies to social, environmental and corporate governance issues. ASE also amended the listing Securities Directives, which obliged the listed companies included in the ASE20 index sample to issue sustainability reports starting from 2022 in accordance with the global principles and standards GRI. Furthermore, a number of agreements were signed with international institutions, most notably the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), to support the ASE's efforts in spreading awareness, culture and training on sustainability. In addition, ASE launched the Climate Disclosure Initiative by signing an agreement with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to develop a guide for listed companies that clarifies the information that must be disclosed regarding climate change. Thus, the ASE is the first in the region and the fifth worldwide to launch such an initiative. The ASE has joined the Net Zero Pledge initiative launched by the UN SSE Initiative. In addition to the above, the ASE also chairs the Sustainability Committee of the Federation of Euro-Asian Stock Exchanges (FEAS), where it has worked to enhance sustainability and social responsibility practices in financial markets, and to provide awareness and training to stock exchanges on the importance of sustainability and how to prepare related reports.