Launching of Pengurusan Aset Air Berhad (PAAB) Sustainable Islamic Finance Framework (SIFF)

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim

YBhg. Dato' Seri Ir. Jaseni Maidinsa
Chairman, Pengurusan Aset Air Berhad (PAAB)

YBhg. Dato John Chong Eng Chuan
Group CEO, Global Banking Maybank Investment Banking Group

YBrs. Encik Chris W.K. Lee
Group Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director RAM Holdings Sdn Bhd

Ladies and gentlemen

Assalamualaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh
And Salam Malaysia MADANI

1. Most of us turned a tap this morning without a second thought, and clean water was there. We rarely pause on it because water is national infrastructure that works best when we notice it least.
   
   
2. Other infrastructure announces itself more easily. Roads, ports and power lines stand as visible signs of progress. Water slips into the background, reaching our homes, hospitals, farms and factories quietly every day, until the moment it fails and households and businesses feel the loss at once.
   
   
3. Behind that simple turn of the tap sits a system that requires constant renewal. Drawn from rivers and treated at real cost, more than a third of the water Malaysia] treats is still lost before it reaches the people and places it was meant to serve.
   
   
4. Closing that gap requires both engineering and financing, because essential water assets are hard to fund, with returns that come over many years and reach millions of users.
   
   
5. Water security has therefore moved beyond the language of utilities and become a question of economic resilience. Most of our supply begins in rivers, exposed to pollution and a climate that now swings between longer droughts and heavier floods.
   
   
6. Much of the network was laid decades ago and now needs renewal, while demand keeps rising. The task is to keep water affordable while giving the system the capacity to renew assets, reduce losses and prepare for a more demanding climate.
   
   
7. The value of this work is often quiet because it is measured in disruption avoided. The best return on a water system is often a crisis that does not arrive, a factory that keeps running through a dry season, a hospital that never loses supply and a community whose day is never interrupted.
   
   
8. The same calculation now runs through investment decisions, especially for water-sensitive industries. Semiconductor operations and data centres depend on a clean and reliable water supply, and investors weigh that reliability alongside land, talent and power when deciding where to build.
   
   
9. Taken together, this calls for investment on a scale that public funds alone cannot sustainably carry. The water services industry estimates long-term investment needs at around RM110 billion over the next 50 years, to build, upgrade and replace the assets we depend on. Meeting that need requires long-term capital from institutions and private investors, alongside public funding. 10. Our national plans point the same way, from Thirteenth Malaysia Plan (RMK-13) to the Water Sector Transformation 2040 agenda and our goal of net zero by 2050.

Ladies and gentlemen,

11. Pengurusan Aset Air Berhad is the custodian of the nation’s water assets, created to support the development and financing of water infrastructure with long-term asset ownership and financing discipline. That role matters because water renewal requires an institution able to think across decades, raise capital responsibly and support the assets that licensed operators depend on to serve the rakyat.
    
    
12. I wish to congratulate PAAB on the development and formalisation of this Framework. This is an important achievement for the institution, for the water sector and for Malaysia's sustainable Islamic finance ecosystem.
    
    
13. It gives PAAB a disciplined platform to draw in private investors and institutions, so renewal can be financed with less pressure on public finances and translated more quickly into the assets Malaysians depend on.
    
    
14. What that capital supports is tangible and close to home. It renews ageing mains, upgrades treatment plants, strengthens storage, reduces water losses and protects the rivers and catchments where our supply begins. It also supports wastewater management, adaptation to a harder climate and the protection of aquatic ecosystems.

Ladies and gentlemen,

15. Malaysia comes to this from a position of real strength. We issued the world’s first green sukuk in 2017 to finance solar power in Sabah. In 2021, Malaysia brought the world’s first sovereign US dollar sustainability sukuk to market, with strong investor demand.
    
    
16. Today, Malaysia remains the world’s largest sukuk market, commanding around 36% of total global sukuk outstanding as at end-2024. PAAB’s Framework builds on that strength by bringing blue finance into an Islamic structure. It opens the way for what could be Malaysia’s first Blue Sukuk, an issuance of up to RM500 million, subject to market conditions and the relevant approvals.
    
    
17. Its significance is larger than the issuance itself. This Framework creates a channel for Shariah-compliant capital to flow into the water infrastructure Malaysia depends on. It allows investors to support projects that reduce losses, strengthen supply and protect water sources. It turns water security into an investable national priority, with capital-market discipline and accountability.
    
    
18. Investor confidence rests on the rigour behind the Framework. It was structured with Maybank Investment Bank and reviewed independently by RAM Sustainability, which awarded it a Platinum rating, its highest rating and a first in Malaysia.
    
    
19. It is built to the Securities Commission's SRI Sukuk Framework, the ASEAN bond standards and ICMA principles, while its blue instruments follow IFC blue finance and ICMA blue economy guidance.
    
    
20. There is also a deeper reason to place this work within Islamic finance. Its guiding ideas of stewardship, fairness and amanah, the trust to pass on something stronger than we were given, sit naturally with the aims of sustainability.
    
    
21. The next frontier is what I would call stewardship capital, Shariah-compliant, commercially sound and aimed at assets that protect our communities and future generations. Financing water in this way is Ekonomi MADANI in practice, where how we raise money reflects the kind of society we want to build, one that grows while protecting what our children will need.

Ladies and gentlemen,

22. The Government’s role is to provide clarity, stability and confidence, so that institutions, investors and operators can build with conviction. Public capital can open the way where markets are still thin, while the private sector, banks and long-term investors help scale what works.
    
    
23. PAAB has done exactly that over the past two decades, investing RM22.4 billion in the nation’s water infrastructure and helping spread the cost of renewal over time, while keeping affordability as a central concern.
    
    
24. I also commend Maybank Investment Bank and RAM Sustainability for helping bring this Framework to this point, and for showing, with PAAB, how public institutions, financial markets and independent assessors can work together behind something the nation needs.
    
    
25. For families, this will not appear as a financing framework. It will be felt in a tap that runs, a service that stays reliable and a bill that remains within reach. For businesses, it means continuity as they plan and grow. For investors, it means a credible way to fund infrastructure with clear environmental and social value. For Malaysia, it means turning a long-term national need into a responsible investment opportunity.
    
    
26. At the heart of this Framework is a simple ambition, which is to keep water flowing reliably, reduce what is lost, protect the sources it comes from and ensure it remains there for the people and places that depend on it.
    
    
27. The measure of this work will be found in the reservoirs that hold through a dry season, the leaks that no longer drain our supply, the rivers kept clean for those who come after us and the confidence of Malaysians who turn on a tap each day and find that the water is simply there.
    
    
28. With these words, and with Bismillahirrahmanirrahim, I am pleased to officiate the launch of the Sustainable Islamic Finance Framework of Pengurusan Aset Air Berhad.

Thank you

Wabillahi Taufik Wal Hidayah, Wassalamualaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh.