The SSE and Sabanci University hosted a workshop in Istanbul on January 23, 2013 to assist with the development of a new sustainability index for the Borsa Istanbul stock exchange.

Executive Vice President of Borsa Istanbul Mustafa Kemal Yilmaz (picture) welcomed participants and  invited them to contribute to the development process of the new sustainability index with Borsa Istanbul plans to launch later this year. Borsa Istanbul is working to implement best practices for incentivizing better sustainability management among companies, marketing a sustainability index to global investors, and promoting sustainability reporting among listed companies in Turkey.

A number of national and international institutional investors were on hand to provide inputs to the new index. A representative of Blackrock, the world’s largest asset manager with over 4 Trillion USD in assets under management, delivered the keynote address, stressing the importance of  sustainability issues to mainstream investors like Blackrock.

James Zhan, Director of UNCTAD’s Division on Investment and Enterprise, applauded participants for contributing to efforts to promote long-term sustainable investment. “The SSE is only as strong as its member stock exchanges. We hope to organize more events with our Partner Exchanges that draw on the experience of multiple stakeholders in order to enhance corporate sustainability and promote responsible investment.”

Workshop participants included representatives from international organizations, private companies, NGOs, and public-sector offices. In addition to UNCTAD, UN Global Compact and Borsa Istanbul, representatives attending the workshop also came from Coca-Cola, the British Embassy, Blackrock, EIRIS, IFC, Garanti Bank, and the Central Securities Depository of Turkey, among others. Bloomberg Turkey covered the event, interviewing Borsa Istanbul Executive Vice President of Mr. Yilmaz and UNCTAD SSE Coordinator Anthony Miller.

The event was organized by the Sabanci University Corporate Governance Forum of Turkey in cooperation with the SSE. The SSE is a joint UN project, co-convened by UNCTAD, UN Global Compact, UNEP and the UN-supported Principles for Responsible Investment. The SSE currently has nine partner exchanges, including: the Bombay Stock Exchange, Borsa Instanbul, BM&FBOVESPA (Brazil), the Egyptian Exchange, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the Nigerian Stock Exchange, the New York Stock Exchange, NASDAX OMX, and the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Collectively these exchanges list over 10,000 companies with a market capitalization of over USD 27 trillion.

The SSE Global Dialogue, which is the initiative’s biennial flagship meeting, will take place in October this year at the UN Palais des Nations in Geneva as part of UNCTAD’s World Investment Forum. Anyone wishing to participate can follow SSE on Twitter @SSEinitiative, visit the SSE website, or contact the SSE by email at [email protected] for more information.