10 SPOs to raise funds through social impact exchange

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s first pay-for-impact exchange dubbed as the Social Impact Exchange (SIX) is expected to see between eight and ten Social Purpose Organisations (SPOs) raising funds through the exchange.

SIX is an initiative jointly implemented by the Malaysian Innovation agency (AIM) and the Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC) under the National Blue Ocean Strategy.

MaGIC chief executive officer Ashran Ghazi ,however, said the amount to be raised was yet to be determined.

“As for the launch of SIX, we got between eight and ten SPOs that have been certified. As for the value of fund to be raised, we are in the midst of discussion with the corporate sector. There is no target (in terms of value) per se,” he told a press conference held in conjunction with the two-day Global Entrepreneurship Community (GEC) Summit 2017.

Meanwhile, commenting on the initiatives under GEC Laboratories (Labs), Ashran said compared with 50 initiatives churned out from the previous GEC Labs, the numbers of initiatives from this year’s GEC Labs can only be revealed tomorrow, on the final day of the GEC Summit 2017.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, in his opening remarks at the summit this morning, said 15 projects from the 50 initiatives, were expected to generate at least RM100 million in the next three years.

“Last year, I announced two landmarks initiatives for the development of social innovation in Malaysia, under MaGIC.

“These initiatives eventually became the Impact Driven Enterprise Accreditation or IDEA programme, in which 44 companies have participated, collectively pouring in more than RM3 million from impactdriven enterprises since it was launched in September 2017,” Najib said. — Bernama