Xu Zhengyu: Actively promote cross-regional cooperation, attract and promote multilateral development banks and other institutions to use Hong Kong as a platform to develop offshore RMB and green financial businesses.

On June 12th, the Financial Secretary of Hong Kong, Paul Chan, delivered a speech at the "Environment, Social and Governance Awards 2026" ceremony hosted by Ming Pao. He emphasized that Hong Kong can leverage its financial strengths to align with global green and sustainable development needs from three perspectives. Paul Chan mentioned the importance of three key alignments, as practicing ESG is now a cross-border issue in the current global environment. The government is actively promoting cross-border cooperation, with one important direction being to attract and facilitate multilateral development banks, as well as sovereign, quasi-sovereign, and multilateral institutions from the Middle East and Belt and Road region, to utilize Hong Kong as a reliable platform for developing offshore RMB and green finance business. The first alignment is to align with market trends and demands. Last year, the total amount of green and sustainable debt issued in Hong Kong exceeded $76 billion USD, including bonds and debt. Among them, the total amount of green and sustainable bonds arranged for issuance in Hong Kong was approximately $38 billion US dollars, accounting for 40 percent of the regional market total. In fact, the SAR government has been promoting the integration of green finance and financial technology. Since the launch of the "Government Green Bond Programme" in 2019, the government has successfully issued approximately HK$260 billion equivalent of government green bonds. In November last year, Hong Kong successfully issued the world's first digital green bond applying RMB and HK dollar tokenized central bank digital currencies in the settlement process. In addition, the Hong Kong government's "Green and Sustainable Finance Grant Scheme" subsidizes eligible bond issuers and loan borrowers for expenses related to bond issuance and sustainable services. As of April this year, the government has approved over HK$440 million in subsidies to over 700 debt instruments, involving a total value of over $200 billion USD. Starting from the end of April this year, the government further optimized the scheme, including subsidies for general bond issuance costs, and raised the minimum eligible bond amount from HK$1.5 billion to HK$2.5 billion. The second alignment is to strive to align with international standards. Sustainable disclosure is an important pillar supporting effective capital allocation, enhancing market confidence, and promoting the deepening development of green finance. Hong Kong is gradually establishing a sustainable disclosure system aligned with international standards, allowing the market to have not only "funds" but also "data," "standards," and "confidence." The International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation confirmed Hong Kong as one of the first jurisdictions to aim for comprehensive adoption of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB standards), approving the SAR government's introduction of the Hong Kong Sustainability Disclosure Roadmap, requiring large public interest entities to fully adopt ISSB standards by no later than 2028. These measures can effectively enhance the information transparency of the capital markets sustainable development and promote global capital flows. The third alignment, of course, cannot be achieved without training and continuous supply of talents. Since 2022, the government has been subsidizing practitioners, relevant professionals, as well as students and graduates studying related disciplines to receive training in green and sustainable finance. As of April this year, there have been 117 eligible training courses and qualifications, with over 10,000 applications approved and subsidies exceeding HK$59 million. The pilot scheme has been extended until 2028. Paul Chan mentioned that institutions such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have already issued offshore RMB bonds in Hong Kong. In the future, they can make fuller use of Hong Kong's green finance hub status to play a greater role in the following three aspects. Firstly, raising green funds. AIIB and ADB can further expand the scale and variety of green bonds issued in Hong Kong, including issuing different currencies, different tenors, and even tokenized green bonds, to raise more funds for green projects in the region. Secondly, promoting alignment with green standards. Multilateral development banks can use Hong Kong as a hub for aligning standards to help green projects in different regions meet internationally recognized standards, thus attracting more international capital. Thirdly, building a platform for cross-border project exchanges. The SAR government is supporting discussions with mainland and international multilateral financial institutions to establish a green technology project accelerator in Hong Kong, supporting the incubation, acceleration, and development of green technology projects in the Belt and Road regions.