Fintech uplifts city's stature as a green hub

Themis Qi

The Hong Kong administration has issued about US$24 billion (HK$187.2 billion) worth of green bonds since 2018 and plans to exploit financial technologies to facilitate green development, says the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Christopher Hui Ching-yu.

Hui made the remarks when officiating at the "Outstanding ESG Enterprises Recognition Scheme" 2023 yesterday, which was jointly organized by Sing Tao News Corporation (1105) and the Center for Economic Sustainability and Entrepreneurial Finance under the School of Accounting and Finance of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

The green bonds, covering various currencies and maturity, aim to build a set of market benchmarks for potential issuers and display Hong Kong as a top platform for green and sustainable financing products, said Hui.

In the first half of next year, he added that the Fintech Proof-of-Concept Subsidy Scheme will be launched to provide early-stage support to uncommercialized green technologies, which was proposed during the policy address.

Cai Jin, executive director and co-chief executive of Sing Tao, said the cooperation with PolyU combines the media impact with knowledge of environmental, social, and governance. He revealed that the 85-year-old media will continue to organize a series of events on ESG, including seminars, forums and training, to help enterprises enhance their competitiveness.

Simon Wong Yuk-sun, vice president (campus development and facilities) of PolyU, said the scheme can promote communication and integration in ESG between the industries and the academy and further facilitate the development in the SAR.

At a panel, Hugh Chow, the ESG Consortium executive director, said small and medium-sized enterprises do not have enough resources for ESG development, and large corporations should help smaller players to essentially make progress in ESG.

Several companies won awards due to their outstanding performance in ESG, including Swire Properties (1972), BOC Hong Kong (2388), The Hong Kong and China Gas Company (0003), MTR Corporation (0066), Nan Fung Property Management, China State Construction Engineering (Hong Kong), Ocean Park Corporation, Hong Kong Housing Society, OCBC Bank (Hong Kong) and Sun Life Hong Kong.