Centre for Sustainable Development and Corporate Social Responsibility in Business

Centre for Sustainable Development and Corporate Social Responsibility in Business (CSDCSR)

Activities Report

Talk Series Sustainable Lifestyle: Challenges and Practices in an Urban Environment
Date: 21st February 2017 Speaker: Ms. Phang Sce Hwai Ms. Phang Sce Hwai provides insights on how to live a sustainable lifestyle in urban environments in Malaysia. She who works as a culinary consultant and food stylist for Nestle Malaysia and India, F&N Malaysia and Unilever Malaysia. On top of that, Phang runs Garden to Table, a café serving dishes made from edibles directly harvested from the property’s garden while educating the public on sustainable gardening and cooking. Furthermore, Phang is also the co-author of Grow, Cook and Eat: Cultivating Asian Herbs and Cooking Them with Flair. In her talk, she spoke on the challenges of living a sustainable lifestyle in urban environments in Malaysia and the immediate practices and measures that should be taken to reduce food wastage and non-biodegradable waste. She shared on the challenges and the feasibility of zero-waste movements. “Sustainability is about making the choice to lead a responsible life starting from now for a better future, environment and society. The little changes in your lifestyle and habits can make a huge impact on the environment. To be an agent of change, first you have to change yourself.” remarked Phang.

Talk Series
Sustainable Lifestyle: Challenges and Practices in
an Urban Environment

Date: 21st February 2017
Speaker: Ms. Phang Sce Hwai

Ms. Phang Sce Hwai provides insights on how to live a sustainable lifestyle in urban environments in Malaysia. She who works as a culinary consultant and food stylist for Nestle Malaysia and India, F&N Malaysia and Unilever Malaysia. On top of that, Phang runs Garden to Table, a café serving dishes made from edibles directly harvested from the property’s garden while educating the public on sustainable gardening and cooking. Furthermore, Phang is also the co-author of Grow, Cook and Eat: Cultivating Asian Herbs and Cooking Them with Flair.

In her talk, she spoke on the challenges of living a sustainable lifestyle in urban environments in Malaysia and the immediate practices and measures that should be taken to reduce food wastage and non-biodegradable waste. She shared on the challenges and the feasibility of zero-waste movements.

“Sustainability is about making the choice to lead a responsible life starting from now for a better future, environment and society. The little changes in your lifestyle and habits can make a huge impact on the environment. To be an agent of change, first you have to change yourself.” remarked Phang.

Talk Series Taking the Road Less Traveled - Achieving The Extraordinary
Date: 21st March 2017 Speaker: Dr. Victor S.L.Tan. Dr. Victor S.L. Tan is the principal consultant and Chief Executive Officer of KLSCC group. He has more than 25 years of experience in consulting, banking, strategic planning and training. The talk aimed to convey the management and practical skills for achieving personal goals and dreams to academics and students. Besides that, the talk promoted the importance of change management in pursuing dreams and sustaining personal goals. In Dr Tan’s talk, he mentioned, “Your belief determines your reality. Don’t let fear stop you. Knowledge is potential power that needs to be incorporated with courage on the road that is less travelled.” He shared a few lessons throughout the talk. Among them was to rise against the odds and find the courage to fight on. Besides that, knowing how to pull internal resources and do the extraordinary will change the mindset and transform you and others around you.

Talk Series
Taking the Road Less Traveled - Achieving The Extraordinary

Date: 21st March 2017
Speaker: Dr. Victor S.L.Tan.

Dr. Victor S.L. Tan is the principal consultant and Chief Executive Officer of KLSCC group. He has more than 25 years of experience in consulting, banking, strategic planning and training.

The talk aimed to convey the management and practical skills for achieving personal goals and dreams to academics and students. Besides that, the talk promoted the importance of change management in pursuing dreams and sustaining personal goals.

In Dr Tan’s talk, he mentioned, “Your belief determines your reality. Don’t let fear stop you. Knowledge is potential power that needs to be incorporated with courage on the road that is less travelled.” He shared a few lessons throughout the talk. Among them was to rise against the odds and find the courage to fight on. Besides that, knowing how to pull internal resources and do the extraordinary will change the mindset and transform you and others around you.

Seminar Disaster Risk Reduction and Management
Date: 27th March 2017 Speakers: Dr.Magiswary Dorasamy; Ms.Saraswathy Thurairaj and Ms.Komathi Munusamy; Ms. Chin Wai Yin (Esther); Ms. Khong Yeen Lai, Ms. Malathi Nair and Ms. Jeya Santhini Appannan. The centre organized a seminar entitled ‘Seminar on Disaster Risk Reduction and Management’ by inviting Dr.Magiswary Dorasamy to deliver her talk and knowledge sharing on “iCEMAS: A Web-based Knowledge Management Systems for Disaster Management in Malaysia”. This talk also aims to give hands-on experience to qualitative researchers, academics and practitioners to analyze unstructured data using NVivo 11 Pro software. The aim of this study was to examine if the theoretical effects relieved the problems faced by Majlis Keselamatan Negara (MKN) and contribute to the body of knowledge. The findings revealed that the existing problem is widespread across all states in Malaysia. There is hardly any systematic information system solution to circumvent the challenges. iCemas KMS was perceived as one stop center for MKN to communicate, coordinate, and collaborate with community and supporting agencies.

Seminar
Disaster Risk Reduction and Management

Date: 27th March 2017
Speakers: Dr.Magiswary Dorasamy; Ms.Saraswathy Thurairaj and
Ms.Komathi Munusamy; Ms. Chin Wai Yin (Esther); Ms. Khong Yeen Lai,
Ms. Malathi Nair and Ms. Jeya Santhini Appannan.

The centre organized a seminar entitled ‘Seminar on Disaster Risk Reduction and Management’ by inviting Dr.Magiswary Dorasamy to deliver her talk and knowledge sharing on “iCEMAS: A Web-based Knowledge Management Systems for Disaster Management in Malaysia”. This talk also aims to give hands-on experience to qualitative researchers, academics and practitioners to analyze unstructured data using NVivo 11 Pro software.

The aim of this study was to examine if the theoretical effects relieved the problems faced by Majlis Keselamatan Negara (MKN) and contribute to the body of knowledge. The findings revealed that the existing problem is widespread across all states in Malaysia.

There is hardly any systematic information system solution to circumvent the challenges. iCemas KMS was perceived as one stop center for MKN to communicate, coordinate, and collaborate with community and supporting agencies.

Talk Series Identifying Research Gap and Finalizing Research Problem
Date: 26th April 2017 Speakers: Prof Dr Dileep Kumar Mohanachandran The aim of the talk was to provide an overall understanding of research and publication. The talk covers topics related to issues and challenges of doing research such as identifying research philosophy, engagement in literature review, identifying research gaps, identifying research topics, creating problem statement and methodology. Prof Dileep shared on the different websites to locate research gaps such as Social Mention, Springer, Google Ads, Broadreader which provides popularity, various bars and charts to demonstrate the trends in different time span and the most recent articles that have been downloaded.

Talk Series
Identifying Research Gap and Finalizing Research Problem

Date: 26th April 2017
Speakers: Prof Dr Dileep Kumar Mohanachandran

The aim of the talk was to provide an overall understanding of research and publication. The talk covers topics related to issues and challenges of doing research such as identifying research philosophy, engagement in literature review, identifying research gaps, identifying research topics, creating problem statement and methodology.

Prof Dileep shared on the different websites to locate research gaps such as Social Mention, Springer, Google Ads, Broadreader which provides popularity, various bars and charts to demonstrate the trends in different time span and the most recent articles that have been downloaded.

Workshop A Guide to Getting Published Workshop
Date: 27th April 2017 Speaker: Mr. Elvin Cheah Centre for Sustainable Development and Corporate Social Responsibility in Business (CSDCSR) organised a professional public talk entitled, “A Guide to Getting Published Workshop” at Sungai Long Campus. This talk was to provide a comprehensive guide in optimising the use of the academic writing and the preparation skills whilst focusing on best practice for submission and post-publication promotion. The invited speaker was Elvin Cheah, a Business Manager at Emerald Group Publishing Limited, who has conducted numerous workshops to support many authors, editors, reviewers, aspiring authors, researchers, faculty members and doctoral candidates in publishing their research for international peer-reviewed scholarly journals.

Workshop
A Guide to Getting Published Workshop

Date: 27th April 2017
Speaker: Mr. Elvin Cheah

Centre for Sustainable Development and Corporate Social Responsibility in Business (CSDCSR) organised a professional public talk entitled, “A Guide to Getting Published Workshop” at Sungai Long Campus. This talk was to provide a comprehensive guide in optimising the use of the academic writing and the preparation skills whilst focusing on best practice for submission and post-publication promotion.

The invited speaker was Elvin Cheah, a Business Manager at Emerald Group Publishing Limited, who has conducted numerous workshops to support many authors, editors, reviewers, aspiring authors, researchers, faculty members and doctoral candidates in publishing their research for international peer-reviewed scholarly journals.

Talk Series Globalisation and DeGlobalisation
Date: 12th July 2017 Speaker: Mr. Gary Lit Ying Loong. The talk was delivered by Gary Lit Ying Loong, the director of GL Training and Consultancy based in Singapore and his role is that of a business investment and consulting. He shed some light on the current issues and explained about the technology globalisation and the cultural globalisation. He also shared about the definition of globalisation, from the different perspectives of authors and researchers.

Talk Series
Globalisation and DeGlobalisation

Date: 12th July 2017
Speaker: Mr. Gary Lit Ying Loong.

The talk was delivered by Gary Lit Ying Loong, the director of GL Training and Consultancy based in Singapore and his role is that of a business investment and consulting.
He shed some light on the current issues and explained about the technology globalisation and the cultural globalisation. He also shared about the definition of globalisation, from the different perspectives of authors and researchers.

Talk Series Factors Determining Natural Rubber Prices
Date: 21st July 2017 Speakers: Mr. Jom Jacob. The two-hour talk was presented by senior economist Jom Jacob from the Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC), an inter-governmental organisation of natural rubber producing countries. Jacob began his talk by mainly emphasising the importance of acknowledging the price of natural rubber. “The natural rubber pricing is very important for Malaysia,” he continued, “A sizeable number of people depend on the movement of rubber price. Even though people are not directly linked to the rubber price, many industries and business companies always complain their business is not doing well because of poor performance of the rubber price.” With the main objective to identify the major factors that often influence a transformation in the natural rubber industry worldwide, Jacob shared his insights on several factors such as supply and demand, crude oil trends, currency movements and flow of speculative funds. He particularly emphasised on the flow of speculative funds and explained the link between natural rubber price and crude oil price.

Talk Series
Factors Determining Natural Rubber Prices

Date: 21st July 2017
Speakers: Mr. Jom Jacob.

The two-hour talk was presented by senior economist Jom Jacob from the Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC), an inter-governmental organisation of natural rubber producing countries.

Jacob began his talk by mainly emphasising the importance of acknowledging the price of natural rubber. “The natural rubber pricing is very important for Malaysia,” he continued, “A sizeable number of people depend on the movement of rubber price. Even though people are not directly linked to the rubber price, many industries and business companies always complain their business is not doing well because of poor performance of the rubber price.”

With the main objective to identify the major factors that often influence a transformation in the natural rubber industry worldwide, Jacob shared his insights on several factors such as supply and demand, crude oil trends, currency movements and flow of speculative funds. He particularly emphasised on the flow of speculative funds and explained the link between natural rubber price and crude oil price.

Talk and Demo Governing Common Properties of Low-Cost Flats in Selangor: Issues and Challenges
Date: 31st July 2017 Speaker: Dr Wang Hong Kok The talk featured the speaker, Dr Wang Hong Kok who is a Fellow of The Institution of Engineers, Malaysia (IEM), and currently serves as its Honorary Treasurer, Session 2017/2018. Dr Wang graduated in civil engineering from the University of Singapore in 1976. In 2016, he passed the professional assessment interview of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, UK (RICS), and became a Chartered Surveyor. The talk highlighted the issues and challenges of the run down condition of Malaysia’s common properties of the strata buildings in general. His talk described the findings on self-governance of strata buildings. Aside from that, Dr Wang explained about certain research conceptual frameworks and the importance of context. He highlighted that most self-governed strata buildings tend to fail and the common properties of low-cost flats can be studied in the same way as common pool resources such as the river, air, forest and others. Furthermore, he spoke of the true meaning of collective action and its relationship to the nature of the community, and rules which shape human conduct for a better society.

Talk and Demo
Governing Common Properties of Low-Cost Flats
in Selangor: Issues and Challenges

Date: 31st July 2017
Speaker: Dr Wang Hong Kok

The talk featured the speaker, Dr Wang Hong Kok who is a Fellow of The Institution of Engineers, Malaysia (IEM), and currently serves as its Honorary Treasurer, Session 2017/2018. Dr Wang graduated in civil engineering from the University of Singapore in 1976. In 2016, he passed the professional assessment interview of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, UK (RICS), and became a Chartered Surveyor.
The talk highlighted the issues and challenges of the run down condition of Malaysia’s common properties of the strata buildings in general. His talk described the findings on self-governance of strata buildings. Aside from that, Dr Wang explained about certain research conceptual frameworks and the importance of context.
He highlighted that most self-governed strata buildings tend to fail and the common properties of low-cost flats can be studied in the same way as common pool resources such as the river, air, forest and others. Furthermore, he spoke of the true meaning of collective action and its relationship to the nature of the community, and rules which shape human conduct for a better society.

Workshop Role of Financial Sector Development in the FDI-Growth Nexus in Pacific Islands: A Case Study of Fiji
Date: 7th August 2017 Speaker: Professor Dr Tiru K. Jayaraman The invited to deliver the talk was Professor Dr Tiru K. Jayaraman, professor in the School of Economics, Banking and Finance, Fiji National University (FNU), Nasinu Campus, Suva, Fiji Islands. Prof Tiru remarked, “Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) helps reducing risks faced by imitating domestic firms, while Financial Sector Development (FSD) promotes FDI absorptive capacity of the host country. Research shows that positive growth exists when FSD (as percentage of GDP) exceeds a threshold. FDI supplements domestic savings and management capacities through the transfer of skills. FSD reduces risks involved in investment decisions by domestic investors who innovate along the lines of foreign entrepreneurs through imitation.”

Workshop
Role of Financial Sector Development in the FDI-Growth
Nexus in Pacific Islands: A Case Study of Fiji

Date: 7th August 2017
Speaker: Professor Dr Tiru K. Jayaraman

The invited to deliver the talk was Professor Dr Tiru K. Jayaraman, professor in the School of Economics, Banking and Finance, Fiji National University (FNU), Nasinu Campus, Suva, Fiji Islands.

Prof Tiru remarked, “Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) helps reducing risks faced by imitating domestic firms, while Financial Sector Development (FSD) promotes FDI absorptive capacity of the host country. Research shows that positive growth exists when FSD (as percentage of GDP) exceeds a threshold.

FDI supplements domestic savings and management capacities through the transfer of skills. FSD reduces risks involved in investment decisions by domestic investors who innovate along the lines of foreign entrepreneurs through imitation.”

Talk Series Fourth Industrial Revolution: Socio-Economic Issue in Oil Palm Industry
Date: 2nd November 2017 Speaker: Mr. Balu Nambiappan The speaker invited to deliver the talk was the Director of Economics and Industry Development Division of Malaysian Palm Oil Board, Mr. Balu Nambiappan. At the talk, Balu provided an overview of palm oil industry to the audience and advised them to access the words properly in a particular domain of knowledge before knowing the things better. He said, “Many people are actually having problems with distinguishing between oil palm and palm oil. Oil palm is the general term of palm tree, whereas palm oil is the product produced from oil palm fruit.” During the talk, he also described several issues and consequences that have impacted the palm oil industry. He explained that Malaysia had been one of the leaders in palm oil production but countries especially the European Union (EU) wants Malaysia to adopt their standard. He indicated that ‘no palm oil’ or ‘palm oil-free’ labelling is discriminatory and unfair, and the generic terms like ‘vegetable oils’ should not be used to denigrate palm oil. “Most of the consumers have no idea that palm oil is actually in the food they are consuming. This is because the word ‘palm oil’ is rarely used to display on the product labels. It is discrimination against palm oil,” said Balu. He mentioned that the allegations made by western NGOs were baseless, where they claimed that palm oil cultivation was damaging the environment, leading to deforestation and loss of biodiversity. Moreover, he highlighted the importance of palm oil and also gave a comprehensive SWOT analysis and outlook of the Malaysian oil palm industry to the participants. “The consumption of palm oil is expected to increase. The industry will continue to be very sun-rising in line with the growing demand of palm oil,” said Balu.

Talk Series
Fourth Industrial Revolution: Socio-Economic Issue in Oil Palm Industry

Date: 2nd November 2017
Speaker: Mr. Balu Nambiappan

The speaker invited to deliver the talk was the Director of Economics and Industry Development Division of Malaysian Palm Oil Board, Mr. Balu Nambiappan. At the talk, Balu provided an overview of palm oil industry to the audience and advised them to access the words properly in a particular domain of knowledge before knowing the things better. He said, “Many people are actually having problems with distinguishing between oil palm and palm oil. Oil palm is the general term of palm tree, whereas palm oil is the product produced from oil palm fruit.”

During the talk, he also described several issues and consequences that have impacted the palm oil industry. He explained that Malaysia had been one of the leaders in palm oil production but countries especially the European Union (EU) wants Malaysia to adopt their standard. He indicated that ‘no palm oil’ or ‘palm oil-free’ labelling is discriminatory and unfair, and the generic terms like ‘vegetable oils’ should not be used to denigrate palm oil.

“Most of the consumers have no idea that palm oil is actually in the food they are consuming. This is because the word ‘palm oil’ is rarely used to display on the product labels. It is discrimination against palm oil,” said Balu. He mentioned that the allegations made by western NGOs were baseless, where they claimed that palm oil cultivation was damaging the environment, leading to deforestation and loss of biodiversity.

Moreover, he highlighted the importance of palm oil and also gave a comprehensive SWOT analysis and outlook of the Malaysian oil palm industry to the participants. “The consumption of palm oil is expected to increase. The industry will continue to be very sun-rising in line with the growing demand of palm oil,” said Balu.