Inclusivity and Sustainability in 2025: Reflections from the Ground

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In 2025, “inclusivity” and “sustainability” took centre stage as the themes of Malaysia’s ASEAN Chairmanship — dominating strategies, roadmaps and conference agendas. On the ground, however, the gap between intent and impact has never felt more visible. After a year of working closely with MSMEs, corporates, policymakers and communities across different regions, I keep returning to a simple question: are we making real progress or just getting better at talking about it?

This reflection is not written from a distance. It is shaped by my own experience throughout 2025 — facilitating ESG trainings, advising organisations and spending time with small business owners and practitioners. I have met MSMEs that genuinely want to do the right thing but are overwhelmed by rising costs, compliance demands and uncertainty. I have worked with organisations eager to align with sustainability frameworks yet constrained by operational realities. I have listened to young professionals anxious about whether the skills they are building today will still matter tomorrow.

What struck me most this year was not resistance to sustainability or inclusion, but fatigue. Fatigue from being asked to transform without sufficient support. Fatigue from ambitious policies that are difficult to implement. Fatigue from being told to be resilient while structural barriers remain firmly in place.

Inclusivity: From Policy to Lived Experience 🌏

Inclusivity is often framed as a macroeconomic concept — measured through growth figures and participation rates. On the ground, it is deeply personal. It shows up in whether people can afford basic necessities, whether opportunity is geographically concentrated and whether vulnerable groups can participate meaningfully in economic life.

Throughout 2025, cost-of-living pressures intensified. Food and service prices continued to outpace wage growth for B40 and M40 households. Many people are juggling multiple jobs, not to get ahead but simply to survive. Elevated household debt levels reflect a reality where long-term financial security feels increasingly out of reach.

Geographic inequality remains entrenched. Urban centres continue to attract jobs, infrastructure and investment, while rural and peripheral regions struggle with access to quality healthcare, education and employment. Internal migration reinforces a cycle where opportunity is concentrated rather than shared.

Technology and Education: Inclusion Gaps 💻

Digitalisation, often framed as a great equaliser, has revealed its limits. Urban areas accelerate in AI adoption and digital transformation while many rural communities still contend with unstable connectivity. In education, unreliable broadband disrupts digital learning, widening achievement gaps. Without foundational infrastructure, digital transformation risks deepening exclusion instead of closing it.

Vulnerable groups — women, youth, rural communities and persons with disabilities — continue to face systemic barriers. Childcare options are limited, accessibility in public spaces and workplaces remains inconsistent for the disabled and young people worry about automation without clear pathways to reskilling. Recognition alone is not inclusion; systems must change.

SMEs: The Backbone of Growth, Still Marginal in Support 🏢

If there is one lesson from 2025, it is this: SMEs are widely acknowledged as the backbone of the economy yet remain marginal in policy execution. Financing is often inaccessible for micro-enterprises. Sustainability expectations, while necessary, add compliance costs that small businesses cannot absorb without targeted support. Beyond basic e-commerce, deeper digital adoption — integrated accounting, inventory management or data systems — remains financially out of reach.

True inclusion for SMEs requires simpler, cheaper and more accessible pathways to finance, technology and capacity building.

Sustainability: Ambition vs Reality 🌱

Sustainability discourse has matured in 2025 but practice continues to lag ambition. Climate commitments are increasingly visible yet behaviour and infrastructure often tell a different story. Car dependency remains high, last-mile public transport is limited and renewable energy expansion faces financing and grid constraints.

Environmental protection also reveals tension between policy and reality. Biodiversity is frequently championed, yet habitat loss, deforestation and environmental degradation persist, often due to fragmented governance and inconsistent enforcement. Sustainability without accountability risks becoming performative.

Economic growth remains closely tied to carbon-intensive sectors such as manufacturing, oil & gas and construction. Transitioning these industries is complex but delaying reform raises long-term costs. A just transition must balance competitiveness, employment and environmental responsibility while ensuring communities are not left behind.

Sustainability is ultimately about resilience and fairness, not just about reducing emissions.

2025 Lessons and 2026 Call to Action 🔑

2025 has reached a critical juncture: inclusivity and sustainability cannot be delivered through language alone. They require long-term thinking, coordinated policies and implementation grounded in reality. Inclusivity should mean that geography does not determine opportunity, that SMEs are supported rather than overburdened and that vulnerable groups are enabled through systems rather than goodwill. Sustainability should protect ecosystems while strengthening livelihoods, not force a false trade-off between growth and responsibility.

Looking into 2026, awareness is no longer the challenge. Execution is.

Policymakers must design policies judged by impact, not elegance — strengthening social protection, closing regional gaps and investing in infrastructure that enables participation. Businesses, particularly larger corporates and financial institutions, must move from expectation to partnership. SMEs cannot carry the cost of transition alone. ESG commitments must be matched with accessible financing, simplified compliance and shared responsibility across value chains.

Educators, trainers and ecosystem builders must translate complexity into capability. Green skills, digital literacy and transition readiness must reach beyond boardrooms into factories, farms, schools and small enterprises.

2026 should not be another year of better language. It must be the year of better decisions, braver implementation and shared responsibility. Because inclusive and sustainable development will ultimately be judged not by how well we articulate it but by how deeply it is felt by the people it is meant to serve.