China News Agency, Hong Kong, September 21 (Dai Xiaoluo) "Hong Kong has broad prospects for the development of green and sustainable finance. With our advantages as an international financial center, we can guide international funds to match high-quality green projects and actively contribute to the country's carbon emissions. Reaching the peak and being carbon neutral, we will make every effort to push Hong Kong towards the goal of carbon neutrality by 2050, and promote the transition of the economy to a greener economy.” Xu Zhengyu, Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, at the “Phoenix Bay Area Financial Forum” held on the 21st 2022” said in the opening speech.
In fact, in the outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan, the state clearly expressed its support for building Hong Kong into a green financial center in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
The Hong Kong SAR Government has also successively launched various favorable policies and plans to actively promote the development of green finance in Hong Kong.
"Since 2015, green debts arranged and issued in Hong Kong have continued to grow." Xu Zhengyu said that the "Government Green Bond Program" launched in 2018 has successfully issued green bonds equivalent to nearly 10 billion US dollars. Potential issuers provide important new benchmarks that enrich the green and sustainable financial ecosystem.
"The total amount of green and sustainable bonds arranged in Hong Kong in 2021 will reach US$31.3 billion, accounting for one-third of the green and sustainable bond market in Asia." Xu Zhengyu revealed that the SAR government will implement a new "green and sustainable bond" in 2022. "Financial Training Pilot Scheme", which is expected to be officially launched in the fourth quarter, to subsidize people in the financial and related sectors to participate in green and sustainable finance training and obtain relevant professional qualifications, so as to promote their participation in training and expand local green and sustainable The talent pool of finance will help the industry to seize green finance opportunities more actively.
As an international offshore RMB financial center with a high degree of marketization and the largest capital pool, Hong Kong can not only provide the mainland with an offshore bond issuance platform for green projects, but also investors from overseas can raise the green bonds of the mainland through "Bond Connect" and other methods. Liquidity in the secondary market.
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