KUALA LUMPUR, March 7 — Sultan of Perak, Sultan Nazrin Muizzuddin Shah today said that regulation is not imposed to be a blocker, but rather an enabler, to smooth the path to progress particularly with Malaysia’s position as a leading Islamic finance centre.

In conjunction with the launch of the Securities Commission Malaysia’s (SC) 30th Anniversary special publication, "The Capital Market in Malaysia — Past, Present and Future”, the ruler said the writers emphasised the ever-increasing importance of corporate governance in rapidly changing, unpredictable times.

"Corporate governance, they argue, must provide the framework within which companies can then be flexible and innovative, ensuring always a solid foundation of public confidence,” Sultan Nazrin Shah said in his Royal Address at today’s book launch.

Sultan Nazrin Shah who is the Royal Patron of Malaysia’s Islamic Finance Initiative also said that the SC epitomises what is, as the book’s foreword points out, so often overlooked about Adam Smith’s seminal "invisible hand” theory that free markets require a foundation of morality and the check of government oversight to prosper.

"This also chimes well with the long tradition of ‘hisbah’ in Islam — the individual as well as the collective duty to uphold the rule of law, best expressed in the Quranic maxim of ‘enjoining the good and forbidding the wrong’,” Sultan Nazrin Shah said.

He also noted that the fourth feature article in the book explores how technical advancements are transforming the markets with growing rapidity and emphasises the many benefits and opportunities of this — increased transparency, democratisation and boosted efficiency — while also highlighting the risks that must be managed.

"Again, guidelines and regulations are not there to deter innovation: they are, indeed, what makes innovation possible, serving as guardrails to ensure the safe and rapid adoption of new technology.

"Through these and other feature articles, Capital Market in Malaysia does what the SC has always done so effectively, and looks forward as well as back, setting out a kind of blueprint for the continued growth of the economy.”

His Royal Highness also pointed out that less than two decades after the SC was founded, Malaysia was awarded 92 per cent in a comprehensive Financial Sector Assessment by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, among the highest scores for any emerging economy.

"This highlights the monumental work undertaken by the SC in that almost 20-year period, to regulate and strengthen Malaysia’s capital markets,” Sultan Nazrin Shah added.

Meanwhile, as of April 2023, a total of RM22.2 billion had been issued under the SC’s Sustainable and Responsible Investment Sukuk Framework, a hugely significant step towards a more sustainable and ethical economy, not just for Malaysia but for the world. — Bernama