7 ANNUAL INTEGRATED REPORT 2021 ADDITIONAL INFORMATION HOW WE ARE GOVERNED REINFORCING SUSTAINABILITY GRATITUDE & APPRECIATION The Board and I take this opportunity to express our appreciation to my predecessor, the Chairman, Datuk Wira Azhar Abdul Hamid and Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO), Dato’ Haris Fadzilah Hassan who resigned on 1 April 2021 and 15 May 2021, respectively. Four independent directors, namely, Datuk Mohd Anwar Yahya, Dr Mohamed Nazeeb P.Alithambi, Datin Hoi Lai Ping and Dr Nesadurai Kalanithi also left during the year and we thank them for their services. In their place, we have been joined by four new independent directors, namely Dato’ Nonee Ashirin Dato’ Mohd Radzi, Dato’ Mohd Rafik Shah Mohamad, Encik Kasmuri Sukardi and Puan Nik Fazila Nik Mohamed Shihabuddin. They bring fresh perspectives and a continued passion to evolve FGV as one of the leaders in agribusiness. We also welcomed FGV’s new GCEO, Encik Mohd Nazrul Izam Mansor, who was appointed on 23 August 2021, and look forward to achieve many milestones with him. Several parties have played a part in the Group’s commendable performance and I am truly appreciative of their contributions. My sincere appreciation extends to our shareholders, especially FELDA, customers and diverse stakeholders for their continued trust and steadfast support in us. I also wish to record our appreciation to the Federal and State Governments, the Ministries, regulatory authorities and Government agencies for their ongoing guidance and assistance. To the settlers and independent smallholders, I reiterate that working together as one with FGV will lead to a shared success. The journey ahead is transformative, and we require your continued partnership, commitment and trust. My deep gratitude extends to our employees who have performed with passion, professionalism and dedication, particularly our frontliners who continued to serve our customers throughout these extraordinary times. Our people are our future. With the guidance of a strong leadership team aligned to our culture of PRIDE, I believe we are in a good position to drive our strategies forward and deliver value to our stakeholders. My appreciation goes out to the members of the Boards within the Group for their invaluable support and counsel. On 10 March 2022, we lost our dear colleague, the late Dato’ Yusli Mohamed Yusoff. The Board wishes to offer our deepest condolences to his family, and acknowledges his valuable contributions as Deputy Chairman and Independent Non-Executive Director of the Group since 2018. Last but not least, I would like to convey my condolences to employees and their families who were victims of the devastating pandemic and floods over the last year. We stand by you in your time of loss, and together we would like to express our special thanks to the nation’s frontliners and volunteers who have been anchors of support through these tumultuous events. Dato’ Dzulkifli Abd Wahab Chairman In FY2022, we look forward to the renewal of our RSPO certification schedule and the lifting of restrictions on our exports by the US CBP, having initiated all the necessary steps to address the matter. Demand for palm oil is expected to increase by 6.50% in 20222, with CPO price remaining high based on current supply forecasts. Going forward, palm oil remains as the mainstay of our business while we strategically deploy appropriate resources into high value and synergistic businesses to mitigate the volatility of CPO price. We are optimistic that this strategic direction will benefit from the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP) which targets further development and modernisation of Malaysia’s farming and agribusiness industry. With the financial gains of 2021, we are now empowered to invest in further value creation integral to our Strategic Business Plan. Malaysia’s National Digital Transformation Roadmap is also a guiding light towards further advancing our digitalisation journey. Across industries, the pandemic has been an enabler in hastening the adoption of digital solutions, and it had also demonstrated the importance of upgrading and strengthening the technology and infrastructure to ease the process of doing business. In FGV’s operations, there has been a rapid adoption of a digital inclusion agenda, to enable our employees to work, learn and connect digitally. We have also made inroads in establishing e-commerce platforms to expand our marketing channel and reach, while capitalising on the growing popularity of shopping online. In our estates and mills, digitalisation and mechanisation initiatives are being implemented and explored to increase productivity. During the year, our R&D team has introduced the positioning device, Geotagger, for replanting and semi-autonomous guiding of machinery using Global Positioning System (GPS). Digitalisation of our estate operations is ongoing in helping improve operations by digital tracking of harvesting, manuring and Fresh Fruit Bunch (FFB) transportation. We are also focusing in research to utilise drones to manage weeds via aerial spraying. Moving forward, our Industrial Revolution 4 (IR4.0) journey will include further advancements in analytic capabilities, cyber security and automation to improve productivity and data driven decision making. The Board will ensure our Strategic Business Plan provides benefits to the smallholders, especially Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA) settlers, whom we regard as our partners, even more so today as FELDA has emerged as FGV’s largest shareholders as at end-2021 with 79.80% shareholding. We expect to harness mutually beneficial synergies from this closer relationship between FELDA and FGV, driven by clearer communication of shared goals and more responsive strategic alignment. 2 Source: Palm Oil Supply and Demand Outlook Report 2022 by Council of Palm Oil Producing Countries
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