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UN picks Indonesian CEO to co-chair investors alliance for sustainability agenda
The alliance members will work alongside each other over the next two years in an effort to free up trillions of dollars from the private sector to finance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
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Renowned entrepreneur Shinta Widjaja Kamdani (right). The United Nations has appointed Shinta as one of the 30 global corporate leaders to join the Global Investors for Sustainable Development Alliance (GISD Alliance). (JP/PJ Leo)
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he United Nations has chosen Indonesia’s renowned entrepreneur Shinta Widjaja Kamdani as one of the 30 global corporate leaders to join the Global Investors for Sustainable Development Alliance (GISD Alliance).
The alliance members will work alongside each other over the next two years in an effort to free up trillions of dollars from the private sector to finance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Shinta, CEO of Sintesa Group and an active advocate for the Indonesian business community, said she wanted the alliance to become the catalyst for projects that emphasized the triple bottom line of profit, people and the planet.
She said she believed that Indonesia’s ease in funding access could help accelerate the realization of ideas and projects relating to the SDGs.
“My priority is to direct private companies toward sustainable business improvements,” she said in a written statement on Oct. 16.
Shinta is the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) deputy chairwoman for international relations and vice chairwoman of the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo).
The diversified Sintesa Group that she leads runs 16 subsidiaries in four business sectors, namely consumer goods, industry, manufacturing and renewable energy.
Other than Shinta, the GISD Alliance is co-chaired by Oliver Bäte, CEO of Allianz, and Leila Fourie, CEO of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, among others.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres launched the alliance and held its first meeting in New York on Oct. 16 Eastern Time Zone.
This was the first time a high-powered international business group has come together under the auspices of the secretary-general.
“The Alliance members are committing to cooperate across financial sectors and even with their competitors because it is both ethical and good business sense to invest in sustainable development for all people on a healthy planet,” Guterres said in a public statement.
According to the UN’s press release, the GISD Alliance will devise ways to stimulate long term investment in development both at the company and system-wide levels and speed up progress toward achieving the SDGs.
The meeting called to answer the most urgent challenges of the SDGs such as the alarming levels of youth unemployment, uneven growth, persistent poverty and trade tensions.
In the social sector, rising global hunger, continued gender inequality and climate change were among the most pressing issues.
