KUALA TERENGGANU, July 17 — RHB Islamic Bank Bhd and its strategic partner, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT), remain committed to raising awareness for marine life conservation and the importance of oceans via the Bidong Summit, which was held from July 14 to 16.

Its managing director Datuk Adissadikin Ali said that it was part of the RHB Ocean Harmony initiative and set the direction of RHB and UMT’s cooperation in ocean and marine life conservation activities.

He said the joint venture that had been established over the past two years was based on value-based intermediation (VBI) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 14 and 17.

"SDG 14 is all about life below water, so we took SDG 14 as one of the cores to bring the message of sustainability forward and SDG 17 (partnership for the goals) because we cannot do it alone, so we have to work with those who are members,” he told Bernama after completing the underwater clean-up activities around the waters of Pulau Bidong, which were part of the summit.

He said that he was happy that the Bidong Summit, which was postponed for two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic, had been successfully implemented.

"We undertook this initiative not only to get knowledge from our strategic partner, UMT, but we actually came out to the field... into the sea and dived. My team and I from RHB got a first-hand experience of the beauty (of marine life and oceans) and simultaneously witnessed the destruction (that was taking place) due to human activities. The oceans must be valued and cared for,” he added. — Bernama