The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) and the German Development Cooperation GIZ jointly organized seminar "Access to International Green Funds – Opportunities for Vietnam" in Ha Noi on June 18, 2015.
The seminar is part of the German-Vietnamese cooperation framework of "Macroeconomic Reforms/Green Growth" Programme, implemented by GIZ in Vietnam on behalf of the Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany (BMZ), using ODA funds provided by the German Government. The Seminar was chaired by the SBV Deputy Governor Nguyen Thi Hong.
The seminar was attended by experts from the State Bank of Vietnam, the ministries, agencies and credit institutions and experts from related international organizations to discuss and share experiences on how to access to international green funds, especially the Green Climate Fund to develop and implement green credit programs in line with practical conditions of Vietnam and the National Strategy for Green Growth and the National Action Plan on Green Growth for period 2011- 2020.
Opening the seminar, SBV Deputy Governor emphasized that the banking system plays a decisive role as the main channel for providing green funds, to promote and orient green investments, credit risk management to serve for green growth. In particular, the two most important issues are capital mobilization and formulating credit policies in line with green criteria and standards. A number of factors are essential to promote green investments, such as policy coordination (credit policy and fiscal policy); the coordination of sources (domestic, international resources, green lending from commercial banks, capital market, etc.); the combination of financial instruments, technical advice, trainings and capacity building; and the encouraging the participation of commercial credit and private funds ...
Ms. Carola Menzel, Senior Advisor and Project Manager from Frankfurt School – UNEP Collaborating Centre for Climate & Sustainable Energy Finance, shared international experiences and lessons learned on green credit policies, international green credit facilities and Green Climate Fund. Mr. Anders Nordheim from UNEP Finance Initiative introduced a range of initiatives and current programs of UNEP FI and sustainable banking.
At the seminar, the participants also listened to the speeches of policy makers and senior experts of Vietnam and discussed several issues such as the need of green funding for Vietnam and how to access to international green fund, in particular to the resources of the Green Climate Fund, the priorities of green projects and sectors in Vietnam; the orientation of developing and implementing pilot green credit programs of the SBV; Recommendation on policy framework to support green credit program and policy mainstreaming; BIDV’s experience in green lending.
In order to implement the National Strategy for Green Growth and the National Action Plan on Green Growth for period 2011 - 2020, the SBV Governor issued Directive No. 03/CT-NHNN dated 24 March 2015 to promote green credit and social and environmental risk management in the credit activities. The State Bank and GIZ in collaboration with other international organizations hold a conference on implementation of Directive 03 throughout the entire banking sector on 2 June 2015. The seminar was held as a continued step in a series of SBV's efforts to support the transformation of the economy towards a green and sustainable development.
VMH