On 16th May, an expert review meeting of Datong Green Commercial Bank (DGCB) plan was held in Beijing. With the support of Datong government, Zhongguancun Xinhua New Energy Industry Research Institute and Doyoung Capital initiated the project, and SynTao Green Finance drafted the plan with references of UK Green Investment Bank’s successful experiences and consideration of Datong’s nature of practice.
After careful review, participating experts agreed the plan unanimously. This is China’s first expert-reviewed green bank initiation plan, representing a crucial turning point for DGCB from planning to constructing.
The experts addressed that, the pass of this plan is a landmark of China’s green finance development, which brings unparalleled meaning to the China’s green finance main-body innovation, international discourse right promotion and domestic best practice setup.
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Photo credit: Economic Information Daily
The review meeting was co-organized by the Datong Financial Service Office, Zhongguancun Xinhua New Energy Industry Research Institute and SynTao Green Finance.
Mr. Anquan Ma, the deputy mayor of Datong city, pointed out that, the GDP of Datong had experienced its very first negative growth, as its famous coal resources was heavily influenced by the “cut overcapacity and reduce output” policy. It is crucial for Datong to change from “the capital of coal” to “the capital of green”, which requires a deep transformation in economic development model. Green finance will be a strong support for this transformation.
According to the plan, the strategic position of DGCB is green bank, of which the purpose is to achieve maximal environmental benefit while assure the sustainability of finance to certain level. DGCB will follow international green finance conventions, lead the regional green finance development, attract more domestic and overseas investment to local green projects, provide technical support to green project financing, and optimize investment structure to accomplish the various targets of ecological civilization.
Considering Datong’s industrial structure and environmental protection priorities, DGCB’s first targeted investment industries will include the energy efficiency improvement of coal power plants, photovoltaic power generation, ecological agriculture, river restoration etc. Two key business areas are corporate finance and financial market, details including green project financing, green working capital loan, green debt financing tools, green asset securitization, energy efficiency financing, carbon asset/emission right mortgage loan, green domestic factoring, green credit extension secured by domestic rever*se factoring, green asset management, green investment and green inter-bank business etc.
DGCB’s green risk management system consists of three parts: targets, policies and tools. DGCB’s green targets will be set by the board of directors together with shareholders following the national sustainable development policies and Datong’s local strategic direction. According to the green targets it will set and the green finance conventions it will sign, DGCB will come up with its Green Investment Policy and Responsible Investment Policy.
This report is based on the according report from Economic Information Daily
About SynTao Green Finance
SynTao Green Finance translated UK Green Investment Bank's Green Investment Handbook in 2015 and introduced it to China. SynTao Green Finance is a trained consultant of UK Green Investment Bank and can help support the implementation of its Green Investment Handbook. SynTao Green Finance provides consulting, research and training services in ESG risk management, green finance product innovation, and other sustainable finance perspectives.