On June 6, 2024, in Hanoi, the Banking Magazine under the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), in collaboration with the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), organized a Workshop on “Sustainability reporting practices: Situation and implementation experience”. Attending the Workshop from the SBV side, there was Mr. Dao Minh Tu, SBV First Deputy Governor; representatives of several entities under the SBV, as well as representatives of commercial banks, foreign bank branches, and international organizations, etc.
SBV First Deputy Governor Dao Minh Tu speaks at the Workshop
Important role of the Sustainability reporting
Delivering his opening speech at the Workshop, First Deputy Governor Dao Minh Tu emphasized that the sustainable development has become an inevitable trend over the world as well as in Vietnam. Organizations and businesses have been increasingly strengthening their roles in sustainable development. This subject has also received a lot of attention by the international organizations and governments around the world, with a lot of new regulations and policies issued to motivate businesses, financial institutions and banks to apply ESG (Environmental – Social – Governance) standards, and publicize information through their Sustainability Reports.
However, according to the Deputy Governor, to contribute to increasing the value of the businesses and optimizing the benefits from sustainable business activities, the businesses need to publicize more information about their sustainable development strategies to enhance the information transparency and get external recognition. Therefore, Sustainability reporting was introduced, and it is receiving more and more attention of the businesses.
An overview of the Workshop
The SBV Deputy Governor hoped that the speakers, experts, and scientists at the Workshop would focus on exchanging and discussing the following topics: (i) The situation of the ESG implementation and the Sustainability reporting practices by the credit institutions in Vietnam – Advantages and difficulties/obstacles; (ii) the legal frameworks, regulations, policies,... related to the Sustainability reporting practices at the credit institutions in Vietnam; (iii) the role and the importance of the sustainable development and the development of the Sustainability reports for organizations and businesses; (iv) sharing useful experience on the Sustainability reporting standards; developing processes for publicizing information and for the Sustainability Reporting practices in line with the international standards; (v) proposing appropriate solutions and recommendations for the realization of the sustainable development goals, the publication of the Sustainability Reports, and making Sustainability reporting be widely applied in the businesses in general and the credit institutions in particular.
Mrs. Sharon Machado, Head of Sustainable Business at ACCA, speaks at the Workshop
The banking sector is paying more and more attention to Sustainability reporting
Speaking at the Workshop, Mrs. Pham Thi Thanh Tung, Deputy Director General of the SBV Department of Credit for Economic Sectors, shared that, over the past time, the SBV has managed the monetary policies and the banking operations in a proactive and flexible manner, aiming at controlling the inflation, maintaining the stability of the macroeconomy, prioritizing the credit resources for production, business operations and the priority fields, promoting green credit, and contributing to supporting the economic growth...
From 2017 to 2023, the green credit outstanding of the banking system increased on average by more than 22% per year. This was evidence that the banking sector’s efforts and solutions have contributed to promoting green credit, promptly meeting the demands for capital to implement green, sustainable projects for the benefit of the community. Besides, there have been a number of difficulties and challenges that the banking sector needs to make efforts to overcome in the coming time to improve the effectiveness of the policies and the solutions related to the credit policy, contributing to realizing the national green growth goals.
Based on that, the SBV has come up with a number of solutions as follows: First, improving the regulations and orientations on green banking and green credit in accordance with the green growth and sustainable development goals; Second, implementing solutions to support the credit institutions to diversify green banking and green credit products; Third, strengthening the capacity of the banking system in deploying green credit and green banking products by organizing training activities and strengthening the capacity of the credit institutions and individuals participating in the development and deployment of the mechanisms, policies, programs, green banking and green credit products; participating in the international forums on sustainable finance; actively engaging in negotiations to mobilize more resources from the international financial institutions for the implementation of green projects.
Mr. Le Ngoc Lam, General Director of the BIDV, speaks at the Workshop
Being one of the largest state-owned banks in Vietnam, the BIDV has recently publicized its Sustainability Report with the theme of "Investing in a Green Future". According to Mr. Le Ngoc Lam, General Director of the BIDV, this 112-page Report contains information about the BIDV's orientations, strategies and commitments for sustainable development, as well as the bank’s ESG practices in 2023.
Based on the current situation from the promotion of sustainable development at the BIDV, Mr. Le Ngoc Lam also made a number of proposals and recommendations for the Government, the SBV, the line Ministries and agencies, with a view to creating more favorable conditions for the businesses in general and the credit institutions in particular in the new approach and operational transition, contributing more importantly to realizing the national green growth and sustainable development goals.
At the panel discussion session at the Workshop, the experts provided additional information and clarifications related to Sustainability reporting, as well as shared, analyzed experience and practical guidelines for organizations and businesses, especially for the credit institutions in Vietnam.
The Panel Dicussion
Moreover, the development of a sustainable development database also requires the cooperation of multiple agencies and international organizations to ensure the comprehensiveness and the transparency of the information, in which the SBV and the Ministry of Finance should play the role of the key management agencies providing directions and supervising the accounting and the financial reporting.
The Workshop was a highly interactive forum for experts from multiple government agencies, international organizations, the entities of the SBV, commercial banks, foreign bank branches, businesses, etc. to discuss, exchange, and share useful experience about the Sustainability reporting standards developed by reputable international organizations; thereby, contributing to raising the awareness of the credit institutions about the necessity of implementing the Sustainability reporting in the banking sector, and building a process for publicizing information, and for the Sustainability reporting practices in line with the international standards.
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