The Covid-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on the global economy. Now, as the pandemic appears to be under control for the time being, countries are making efforts to reopen their economies. They stress that steps taken to support recovery have to be green and low carbon.
China was among the first major economies to promote business reopening and have people go back to work, with the aim of restoring the economy gradually.
The country has made it clear that it plans to provide the environment-protection sector with more financial support to speed up the green and low-carbon economic recovery. Financial institutions have taken measures to support corporates as they resume operation, and Industrial Bank, with its work in green finance stretching back 14 years, notably is one of them. The bank’s efforts not only add support for a green recovery, but they provide useful experience for the industry.
Industrial Bank explored green finance earlier than its peers – it was the first bank to launch a CHUEE (China Utility-Based Energy Efficiency Finance Program) product in 2006 and the first in China to adopt the Equator Principles, in 2008. It is also the commercial bank with the highest outstanding balance of green debts in the world.
Since the Covid-19 outbreak began, Industrial Bank has been leveraging its strengths in green finance to support enterprises. The bank has been offering tailormade services that accurately meet the needs of each enterprise. It has financed more than RMB7 billion accumulatively for environment-protection businesses as they combat the virus.
“Industrial Bank has signed strategic cooperation agreements with nine provinces and regions, representing a total value of RMB570 billion”
Planting the seeds of recovery
In China, the green recovery of the economy is closely interlinked with a series of regional development strategies, which incorporate the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the Yangtze River Economic Belt.
Industrial Bank develops its green finance business in line with the country’s regional economic development strategies. It provides specific business guidelines in major development areas, making continuous efforts to contribute to areas of priority, taking into account regional resource realities.
Meanwhile, the bank has signed strategic cooperation agreements with nine provinces and regions, where the development of green finance is prioritized. The agreements represent a total value of RMB570 billion, and more than RMB300 billion had been disbursed as of the end of the first quarter of 2020.
Industrial Bank has expressed its intention to further invest in the development of green finance. With its structural impact on the industry, green finance channels capital to low-pollution and low-energy-consumption segments that are environmentally friendly. It also helps form a new development model – one that is green, and enables alignment of economic growth, social evolution and environmental protection, and thus provides constant support to a green recovery.
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