The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and People’s Bank of China (PBOC) announced the establishment of the China-Singapore Green Finance Taskforce (GFTF) on April 21.
The taskforce, which is co-chaired by MAS’s assistant managing director (development and international) and chief sustainability officer, Gillian Tan, and chair of the China Green Finance Committee, Ma Jun, will deepen bilateral cooperation in green and transition finance between both countries. It will also facilitate greater public-private sector collaboration to better meet Asia’s needs as it transitions to a low-carbon future.
The inaugural meeting in Chongqing, China, saw discussions on joint initiatives aimed at scaling up green and transition financing flows between Singapore, China and the region.
The taskforce will establish three initial workstreams to focus on three priority areas. The first, taxonomies and definitions, will see MAS and PBOC work together to achieve interoperability between the Singapore and China taxonomies. Products and instruments, the second on the list of priorities, will see Singapore Exchange (SGX) and China International Capital Corporation establishing a workstream to strengthen sustainability bond market connectivity between China and Singapore. The final priority, technology, will see Metaverse Green Exchange and Beijing Green Exchange coming up with a workstream that leverages technology to facilitate sustainable finance adoption.
“We are pleased to deepen our collaboration in green and transition finance with the establishment of the GFTF. The GFTF provides a platform for knowledge exchange and will galvanise collaboration between public-private participants from China and Singapore on concrete initiatives that will catalyse capital flows to support a credible and inclusive transition to a low carbon future for our countries and the region,” says Tan.