By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, Aug 21: Sarawak has secured international recognition for its efforts to drive sustainable development through business events, winning ‘Best Sustainability Initiative (Destination)’ at the M&C Asia Stella Awards 2026.
According to a press release, the award marks Sarawak’s second win in the category, following its 2024 win, and reinforces the State’s focus on creating lasting legacy impact through business events.
The approach aims to ensure that the benefits of business events extend beyond the events themselves, contributing to economic development, social progress, and environmental responsibility.
It also aligns Sarawak’s business events strategy with the Post Covid-19 Development Strategy (PCDS) 2030 and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
This year’s recognition is particularly significant as the award was determined through public nominations and voting, with the support reflecting growing interest in the wider community in meaningful and lasting outcomes from business events.
According to Minister for Tourism, Creative Industry, and Performing Arts Sarawak, Dato Sri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah, the second win demonstrated the importance of sustainability and legacy to Sarawak’s business events strategy and broader development.
“Sustainability must go beyond the environment to include social and economic progress, while legacy ensures that the value created through business events can continue long after an event has ended,” he said.
Since its first M&C Asia Stella Award victory in 2024, Sarawak has continued to develop its legacy agenda through programmes and platforms focused on education, measurement and greater industry participation.
The focus has increasingly shifted towards embedding legacy throughout the event journey and strengthening the industry’s ability to turn sustainability commitments into measurable outcomes.
Datu Hii Chang Kee, Deputy Sarawak Secretary (Operation) and chairman of BESarawak, said the latest recognition reflected the collective effort behind Sarawak’s legacy journey.
“What began with advocacy is gaining greater participation across the industry. Legacy is ultimately about shaping the future together, with government, industry, organisers and communities each playing a role in creating shared and meaningful outcomes,” he said.
BESarawak chief executive officer Jason Tan Chin Foo said the award also showed that legacy impact was gaining relevance across the Asia-Pacific business events industry.
“Our next phase is to drive greater adoption across the ecosystem, ensuring that legacy outcomes are consistently planned, measured and demonstrated, while strengthening the industry’s capability to deliver them. That is how we turn recognition into lasting value for Sarawak,” he said.
The M&C Asia Best Sustainability Initiative (Destination) Award 2026 marks another milestone in Sarawak’s efforts to position legacy impact as a driver of sustainable destination development.
With 28 awards across six categories, the M&C Asia Stella Awards 2026 honours the best of Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions (MICE) destinations, convention centres, destination partners, meeting hotels, integrated resorts, and sustainability efforts in Asia. — DayakDaily
