Quality Alchemist (品質煉金術師): HKQAA International Symposium 2023 – Sustainable Finance, ESG and Climate Resilience • Hong Kong 2023

2023年11月30日星期四

HKQAA International Symposium 2023 – Sustainable Finance, ESG and Climate Resilience • Hong Kong 2023

HKQAA International Symposium performed onsite and online with the theme entitled “Sustainable Finance, ESG and Climate Resilience • Hong Kong 2023” on 30^th Nov 2023 at the Exchange Square of HKEX. I attended online in CityU classroom because I had CityU EngD AGM event at that night.

In the beginning, Ir C. S. Ho (Chairman of HKQAA) gave welcome speech and he introduced this international symposium guests and some background of ESG as well as certification service for green bond finance industry by HKQAA.

And then Mr Christopher Hui, GBS, JP (Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury of HKSAR) gave guest speech. He said climate change is global challenge and he hoped this symposium to bring sustainable finance concept in Hong Kong and Great Bay Area.

All guests are invited to take some group photos.

Mr Chen Guohuang (Deputy Director-general of the Department of Finance of Guangdong Province) was the first guest speaker and he briefed the green development in Guangdong Province and introduced green finance development such as green bond in GBA.

Ms Li Lei (Deputy Director-general of the Department of Finance of Hainan Province) was the second guest speaker and she introduced the Hainan Province RMB Offshore Bonds up to 5 billion RMB.

Ms Zhang Sufen (Deputy Director-general of Shenzhen Finance Bureau) was the third guest speaker and she said Shenzhen green bond, blue bond and sustainable bond issued and those had been certified by HKQAA.

The fourth guest speaker was Ms Winnie Fan (Managing Director of Sustainable Finance (Corporate Banking) of BOC(HK)) and she mentioned their carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals, as well as, new energy focus.

The fifth guest speaker was Ms Annette L. Nazareth (Chair of the Integrity Counsel for the Voluntary Carbon Market) and she used video to give speech talking about carbon market. She said we needed to build a trust and perform benchmarking globally.

The sixth guest speaker was Ms Daphne Wat (Deputy Chief Executive/ Alternate Chief Executive, China Construction Bank (Asia) Corporation Limited) and she briefed their ESG financing and some new projects related to insurance of environmental risk.

The last speaker was Ms Taie Wang (Chief Sustainable & Emerging Business Officer, Hang Seng Indexes Company) and she firstly briefed the background of ESG that became increasingly important in investment strategy. ESG served an important propeller in revaluation.

After that she introduced the HSIL ESG index series development milestone. “HSIL/HKQAA Sustainability Ratings and Research for listed companies is available through the Sustainable and Green Exchange (STAGE)” she said.

Finally, Ms. Taie Wang briefed how to achieve corporate sustainability recognition through Hang Seng Corporate Sustainability Index series members.

Panel Discussion Session:

Dr Nigel Croft, Chair ISO Joint Technical Coordination Group for Management System Standards was the facilitator. He hadn’t visited Hong Kong for four years. He introduced a new standard ISO 32210 for sustainable finance.

The panelists were Mr Ng Wang Tsang, Andy, (Chairman of Hong Kong General Chamber of Social Enterprises); Mr Danny Yeung (Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Prenetics Limited); Mr Johnny Wei (Head of Wholesale Banking of OCBC Bank (Hong Kong) Limited); Mr Mac Leung (Director, Sustainable Finance, Standard Chartered Bank); Mr Tadahiro Kaneko (Senior Assistant to Unit Heads of Global Banking & Wholesale, Banking, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation).

Lastly, Dr Michael P. H. Lam (CEO, HKQAA) gave speech and said “"We believe their exemplary efforts will serve as a beacon, inspiring others in the industry to make significant contributions towards a more sustainable environment and society.”