4 sessions in November (10, 12, 17 & 24th) | 4 Speakers, Zoom platform | Experts on inter-cultural management and communication will deliver lectures and facilitate discussions in the webinar. Seats are limited.
Webinar Date: 1st July 2020 (Wednesday) • 3.00pm (Malaysia time)
The full recording of the webinar. Speakers: Nadia Reynders, Prof. Dr. Azirah Hashim, Dr. Filippo Bignami, Dr. Yang Mee Eng and moderator: Prof. Maya Khemlani David.
Asia-Europe Institute (AEI) University of Malaya, in collaboration with the Centre for ASEAN Regionalism University of Malaya (CARUM), present
Topic: Linkage between Social Responsibility and Institutional Investment: Evidence from Bangladesh
18th June 2020 (Thursday) • 11.00 am Malaysia time (UTC+8)
Moderator: Distinguished Professor Dato’ Dr. Rajah Rasiah
Institutional investment serves as an important factor for instilling stability in the capital market. Due to their huge investment it becomes expensive for them to reorganize their portfolio without significant loss. Before making any investment decisions, institutional investors actively consider long-term sustainability by tracking the record of product quality, environmental responsiveness, and commitment to the society in addition to profitability. Historically, in Bangladesh rate of institutional investment has been low but recent trend shows noticeable rise in institutional investors as a percentage of ownership in listed companies. Given this infancy, one may enquire why institutional investment is showing a rising trend, and does this have any relationship with corporate social performance of the firms they are investing in? On this background this study aimed at examining the hypothesis that higher corporate social performance results in higher institutional investment for firms in emerging economies like Bangladesh. Aggregated data of eight years with three-point data were examined to verify the relationship. We find a positive, insignificant but gradually improving relationship between institutional investment and corporate social performance. Our findings concluded that policy-led measures might better work for emerging economies in ensuring social responsibility initiatives.
Sarwar Uddin Ahmed is a Professor of Finance and Director, BBA Program, School of Business, Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB). He is also serving as the Director of Institutional Quality Assurance Cell ( IQAC) and Director of Center for Business Policy Research (CBPR). He conducted Post-Doctoral study at McNeese State University, USA as a Fulbright Scholar. He received PhD and M. Econo from Nagasaki University, Japan, his M. Com & B. Com in Finance from University of Dhaka. He is the twice over recipient of Fulbright Scholar Award. He was in residence in University of California, Berkeley in 2018 on a Fulbright Fellowship, to conduct research on Climate Finance at the Haas School of Business.
An avid researcher, Prof. Ahmed has authored over 95 articles, 3 books, several book chapters, numerous reports and conference papers. His research has appeared in various reputed journals including, Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, Global Business Review, Journal of Developing Areas, Annual Review of Southeast Asian Studies, International Journal of Environment and Sustainable Development, etc. and was recognized with Best Paper Awards.
His current research interests include climate finance, green banking, corporate social performance, capital market, and relationship banking.
Prof. Ahmed is actively involved in various consultancy projects nationally and globally funded by World Bank, IFC, European Union, UNDP, Japan Ministry of Economy, Technology and Industry (METI), Toxics Link, InM,CPD and D.Net.
Presented by H.E. Charles Hay MVO, British High Commissioner to Malaysia
Recording Date: 10th June 2020 (Wednesday) • 3.00pm Malaysian time (UTC+08) • via Microsoft Teams
Theme: Towards a Common Regional Identity: Developing synergies through Socio-Cultural Co-operation. AEI would like to invite academicians, practitioners, researchers, students and administrators from the private and public sectors to participate and submit papers to be considered for presentation.
Dr Nurliana Kamaruddin, Senior Lecturer, Asia-Europe Institute Universiti Malaya shared her views on BFM’s Morning Run podcast that was presented by Julian Ng and Wong Shou Ning.
Theme: Towards a Common Regional Identity: Developing synergies through Socio-Cultural Co-operation. AEI would like to invite academicians, practitioners, researchers, students and administrators from the private and public sectors to participate and submit papers to be considered for presentation.
Professor Anthony Milner, Visiting Professor at Asia-Europe Institute (AEI) and Centre for ASEAN Regionalism University of Malaya (CARUM), engaged in the ‘ASEAN Academic Days’ program at MGIMO University in Moscow in the second week of October. The ASEAN Centre at that university has a growing interest in Malaysia and is keen to develop relations with AEI and CARUM.
Professor Milner gave four presentations over the week – October 8, 9, 10 and 14 – covering the progress of Southeast Asian Studies, Malay and Malaysian history, and current developments in Asian regionalism (including in Track 2 initiatives).
Brief overviews of Russian academic interest in Southeast Asia are to be found in Victor Sumsky, Mark Hong and Amy Lugg (eds), ASEAN-Russia. Foundations and Future Prospects (Singapore: ISEAS, 2012); and in Ekaterina Koldunova, ‘Southeast Asian Studies in Russia: Agents against Structural Limits’, in Albert Tzeng, William L. Richter and Ekaterina Koldunova (eds), Framing Asian Studies: Geopolitics and Institutions (Singapore: ISEAS, 2018). Professor Milner had detailed discussions with both Dr Victor Sumsky (Director of the ASEAN Centre, MGIMO University) and Dr Ekaterina Koldunova (Deputy Dean, School of Political Affairs, MGIMO University).
MGIMO University – or Moscow State Institute of International Affairs – is connected to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and plays a special role in training Russian diplomats. Henry Kissinger once called it the “Harvard of Russia’ because of its role in training the Russian elite.
Professor Milner, together with Dr Dr Sumsky and Dr Koldunova, met with the Rector – Professor Anatoly Torkunov – to discuss MGIMO relations with academia in both Malaysia and Australia.
Other participants in the MGIMO ‘ASEAN Academic Days’ program included Dr Alan T. Ortiz (Center for Philippine Futuristics), Dr. Kuik Cheng-Chwee (UKM), H.E. Nur Hassan Wirajuda (Foreign Minister of Indonesia, 2001-2009), and Dr Jittipat Poonkham (Thammasat University). The audience included senior officials from both the Malaysian and the Australian embassies.
Apart from these Moscow seminars and meetings, Professor Milner made a brief visit to Saint Petersburg, where he held discussions with Professor Vladimir Kolotov, Head of The Far East History Department at the Saint-Petersburg State University. The University, which teaches an enormous number of Asian languages, may well be a productive partner for the University of Malaya. Profess Kolotov is a Vietnam specialist, and Vietnamese studies is certainly a strong field in Russia.
Written by Prof. Anthony Milner
Topic: The EU in Southeast Asia – Looking Beyond the Standard Narrative
Date: 6th September 2019 (Friday)
Time: 10.00 am
Venue: Asia-Europe Institute, University of Malaya
