Jane Diplock is the Director of the Singapore Exchange Limited (SGX), and Chair of the Governance and Nominations Committee, International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) Board.
In the video below, Jane Diplock discusses the contribution the 2018 Investment Statement He Puna Hao Pātiki makes to international discourse.
Transcript
Jane Diplock: Ladies and gentlemen, I'm delighted to be here today to congratulate the New Zealand Treasury on the launch of the 2018 Investment Statement, Investing for Wellbeing. This is a great step forward in the communication of the value that is created by the New Zealand Treasury and the entities that it manages for the wellbeing of the New Zealand public, and I congratulate you on that. The question of integrated thinking, the thinking holistically of the way in which an entity or a government uses the resources it has, the capitals that it has, to actually create and add value is a very important modern development in the 21st century.
This is a journey that corporates have been taking over the last decade, and really from 2010 onwards all around the world, corporates have seen that with the change in globalisation, issues of climate change, questions of the management of the social enterprises that their corporations are involved in, the communities that their corporations are involved, they have now come to understand that they need to integrate the other capitals that they use as well as financial capital, and communicate how they add value.
So, the parallels between integrated reporting and the wellbeing index development has now converged and I think we're going to see that the integrated thinking, which is the underpinning to both conceptual frameworks, coming together, and governments increasingly reporting how they're adding value to their nation. Why does this matter? Recent research by the Edelman TRUST BAROMETER™ suggests that there's a crisis of trust around the world. Crisis of trust in governments, in NGOs, and in corporates. This is reflected in changes in political dynamics which have been most unfortunate. There needs to be a restoration of trust. It's through the integrated thinking and the putting of the person, people, first that we are going to regain hopefully this trust.
The World Bank, recently, has said, "Let's put people at the centre of the thinking and financial reporting around the world of governments." I really think it's a time for a call to action to all entities. Some that are already under the auspices of the New Zealand Treasury are reporting in an integrated way, and I congratulate them. Some aren't, but some are on the journey, because obviously sustainability data and other data is important before you can put together an integrated report.
But, integrated thinking, which is the step beforehand, before you can produce an integrated report, is absolutely vital. That's what's reflected in this report today. We're seeing already that a large number of New Zealand companies are on the journey. The changes of globalisation, technological change, disruption of companies and entities more generally, and the question of how the society looks at entities that are within the financial framework really requires that there be holistic explanations of how the various elements in the financial framework affect communities, people, society in general. This is where the investing for wellbeing is absolutely essential.
Ladies and gentlemen, it's been a real pleasure to have the opportunity to talk to you today about the Investment Statement 2018 from the New Zealand Treasury, Investing for Wellbeing, and to try to draw some parallels and analogies with work that's being done around the world and here in New Zealand to restore trust in the governments and in corporates, and also to add to the wellbeing of New Zealanders. It's a great pleasure. Thank you.