KUALA LUMPUR (May 25): Deputy finance minister Liew Chin Tong on Monday called for corporations and the capital market to play a bigger role in supporting social enterprises and community-driven initiatives, saying Malaysia needs broader market-based solutions to tackle long-term social and developmental challenges.
Liew said a stronger and more inclusive society is critical to supporting Malaysia’s long-term economic resilience, adding that better allocation of resources towards social priorities would help strengthen the foundations for sustainable growth while ensuring no communities are left behind.
“While the current focus of the Social Exchange is on donation-giving to non-profit organisations, the broader intention is for this platform to create positive spillover effects that deepen Malaysia’s social finance infrastructure,” he said following the launch of Malaysia’s first Social Exchange platform by the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC), which aims to provide a regulated fundraising platform for non-profit organisations and social impact projects.
Liew said the initiative is particularly relevant as Malaysia faces mounting structural pressures, including youth concerns over wages and social mobility, an ageing population and climate-related challenges.
He said the government ultimately wants the Social Exchange to help build a broader social finance ecosystem involving social enterprises, environmental and climate-related initiatives, as well as community resilience projects.
“As the ecosystem matures, the government hopes to see a wider range of activities and stakeholders involved, including funding for environmental conservation, community resilience and other climate-related efforts, including water access in the long run,” he said.
“Over time, this will encourage further innovation that will contribute towards a broader spectrum of market-based instruments that strengthen the capital market’s role in supporting social and developmental outcomes,” he added.
The deputy minister said that Malaysia should begin rethinking the conventional divide between the public and private sectors, arguing that the “third sector”, which is typically defined by non-profit, non-governmental, and voluntary organisations, could bridge commercial activity and social outcomes.
“The third sector does not necessarily have to be entirely non-profit,” he said. “We may even call it ‘social market’. Social in orientation, but market in mechanism.”
SC chairman Datuk Mohammad Faiz Azmi said the Social Exchange is intended to strengthen transparency, accountability and trust in charitable fundraising following growing public concerns surrounding donation management and governance.
He said the platform forms part of the SC’s broader efforts to facilitate market-based fundraising channels for charitable and social impact initiatives, as not all social and community needs could be addressed through government funding alone.
“The Social Exchange provides a transparent avenue for non-profit organisations and social enterprises to raise funds for eligible projects, while giving private donors and investors clearer visibility on how funds are utilised and the outcomes achieved,” he said.
The first phase of the initiative focuses on charitable fundraising, with the SC appointing LC Wakaful Digital Sdn Bhd as the first Social Exchange platform operator through its Impakrintas platform, which went live earlier this year.
LC Wakaful Digital chief executive officer Firdaus Mohamed contended that the Social Exchange is a key piece of infrastructure for the development of the social economy, saying it could help channel donations and charitable contributions towards social impact initiatives with stronger standards of transparency, accountability and governance.
“Historically, social fundraising has operated in fragmented environments with varying standards of visibility and oversight. The Social Exchange framework creates a more structured pathway for donors, institutions, and non-profit organisations to participate with greater confidence,” he said.
According to the SC, the platform currently has eight non-profit organisations onboarded across a range of social impact areas including healthcare access, youth intervention programmes, food security, inclusive livelihoods and environmental sustainability.
The government has also allocated a RM2 million grant under Budget 2026 to help eligible non-profit organisations partially defray onboarding and fundraising costs on the platform while granting tax parity incentives for eligible donors and participating non-profit organisations.