HK Seizes Green Finance Opportunities

Financial Secretary Paul Chan

Hong Kong believes in green finance. Despite last year's turbulence, the amount of green bonds arranged and issued in Hong Kong tripled between 2017 and 2019 - and that came with a wider diversity of issuers.

This year is no different: green finance developments continue to colour our economy and our community.

In May, the Government and our financial regulators jointly established a Green & Sustainable Finance Cross-Agency Steering Group.

The group is actively engaging the industry, and that includes the Hong Kong Green Finance Association. It is seeking advice on policy and regulatory strategies, on promoting market development and enhancing Hong Kong's visibility as a green and sustainable finance hub.

Following last year's inaugural issuance of Government green bonds, we plan to issue green bonds worth $66 billion over the five years beginning in 2020-21, having regard to market situation.

There's more good news on the green front. STAGE - that is the HKEX's new Green & Sustainable Exchange - will launch later this year. It will serve as a rich repository of information and data on green, social and sustainability financial products.

And that's not all. In May, the central government came out with a document weighing financial support for the Greater Bay Area. It included concrete measures to promote Hong Kong as the bay area’s green finance centre.

The association has also been busy building links with the bay area. In September, it established the Greater Bay Area Green Finance Alliance. I spoke at the launch and emphasised the pivotal role the alliance will play in promoting green finance standards and certification throughout the bay area.

Hong Kong, let me add, is eager to seize the unprecedented opportunities that green and sustainable finance can bring to the bay area and its cluster of world-class cities and internationally competitive economies.

All that, and more, is in the works. Like you, I look forward to the post-pandemic world, to the rewarding role green and sustainable finance will surely play in accelerating social and economic growth and welcome, widespread recovery.

Financial Secretary Paul Chan gave these remarks at the 2020 Hong Kong Green Finance Association Annual Forum "Financing a Green & Inclusive Recovery" on November 5.