(3 December 2017) China’s Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE) has become the United Nations Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) initiative’s 67th Partner Exchange by committing to promote sustainable and transparent capital markets. The exchange announced its membership at the Global Philanthropy Finance Forum and 2017 Social Impact Investment Summit on 3 December 2017.
“The SZSE has attached great importance to sustainable development and has devoted a lot of efforts to green finance system construction and social responsibility,” said Wang Jianjun, President and CEO of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. “SZSE’s participation in the SSE Initiative will allow it to play its leading role at a higher level and in wider areas, boosting market-wide and industry-wide better performance of social responsibility.”
“We welcome the recent commitment of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange” said Eric Usher, Head, UN Environment Finance Initiative. “The Shenzhen Stock Exchange is in a unique position to help realize the market opportunities that will support the transition to greener and more inclusive capital markets in China and worldwide. ”
The SZSE first released social responsibility guidelines for listed companies in 2006, guiding companies on disclosing social responsibility information and helping form the social responsibility concept. As of 2017, over 300 SZSE-listed companies have published independent social responsibility reports or environment reports.
Currently the SZSE has listed 110 environmental protection-related public and private corporate bonds and 62 investment funds targeting responsible investment and green industry. It has also launched asset-backed securities related to clean-energy projects.
“We welcome Shenzhen Stock Exchange to the international family of stock exchanges that are committed to promoting responsible investment for sustainable development,” said James Zhan, Director of Investment and Enterprise at UNCTAD and Editor-in-Chief of the UN’s World Investment Report. “Around the world today, we continue to see a new generation of policies in both the private and public sectors that are aimed at promoting more sustainable and inclusive development.”
Taking the opportunity of its participation in the SSE initiative, SZSE will learn from established international practices, support the development of green finance, serve the real economy and the construction of an innovation-oriented country, promote sustainable economic and social development, and strive to be a forerunner in performing social responsibility.
There are now 67 stock exchanges worldwide working with the United Nations SSE initiative, representing approximately 38,000 listed companies or US$57 trillion in market capitalization. The SSE Initiative, co-organized by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the UN Global Compact, the UN Environment Program Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), and the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), is a peer-to-peer learning platform for exploring how exchanges, in collaboration with investors, regulators, and companies, can enhance corporate transparency and promote sustainable investment.
