State Securities Commission to develop green capital market

Green financial products expected to have positive impacts on society and the environment. - Photo vnep.org.vn

SSC Vice Chairman Nguyen Thanh Long told a workshop held on October 28 that the SSC would also take measures to encourage the participation of businesses and investors in green growth.

Nguyen Son, head of the watchdog's Stock Market Development Department, said that for the securities market, developing a green capital market is a strategic task to facilitate capital mobilisation for green projects.

The Vietnamese markets had a total market cap of over VND1,239 trillion (US$53.6 billion) as of September 30.

At the workshop, representatives from the Ha Noi and HCM City stock exchanges called for creating products such as green indices, green bonds, and green investment funds and mutual funds.

Michael Abraham, managing partner of Germany-based Concerto Financial Solutions, said Viet Nam could become the first country in the Indo-china region to have a green index, which would help raise its prestige.

The index could allow investors to track the carbon efficiency of companies doing business in emerging economies.

Michael Krakowski, chief technical advisor to the German Federal Enterprises for International Co-operation (GIZ)'s Macro-Economic Reform And Green Growth Programme, said GIZ would continue to support the SSC in developing green products.

The programme would, in 2015-17, support the SSC and market participants develop a green listing policy that would set disclosure requirements for green investment portfolios by listed companies and implements corporate social responsibility in the form of a code of conduct for the capital market, he said.

GIZ has also helped develop concepts for green financial products to meet the demand for products that are resilient to climate change, he said.

"These financial products will allow investors to make a positive impact on society and the environment, while pursuing their financial targets," Krakowski had told a workshop in April.

The green economic development model, while a growing trend globally, is still new in Viet Nam.

But the Government, realising the importance of green growth, has made it a key focus in a Resolution passed in April on the socio-economic development strategy for 2011-20.