Dr. Ma Jun, Chairman and President of Hong Kong Green Finance Association, receives the Honorary ESG Elite Award from ESG Achievement Awards 2020. The award is organized by The Institute of ESG and Benchmark, with an aim to recognise professionals who devoted their lifetime or contributing impacts on the ESG with success stories.

On the Award Presentation Ceremony on 30th June 2021 (Wed), Dr. Ma shared his award acceptance speech with the audience. Hong Kong Green Finance Association will continue our endeavor to mobilize both public and private sectors resources and talents in developing green and sustainable finance policies, to promote green and sustainable finance business and product innovation within financial institutions.

<Dr. Ma’s full speech below>

First of all, I would like to give my special thanks to the Institute of ESG & Benchmark (IESGB) for establishing the ESG Achievement Awards, and its endeavor to raise awareness of sustainability and ESG-related issues within the financial community.  And it is my great honor and pleasure to accept this Honorary ESG Elite Award.  It is not only an award to myself as Chairman and President of Hong Kong Green Finance Association (HKGFA), but also a recognition of the achievement of the entire HKGFA which devoted great efforts to promote green and sustainable finance in Hong Kong, in the greater bay area, and the Asia region in general.

As you know, HKGFA was established three years ago with a vision to help position Hong Kong as an international green finance hub.  As of now, the HKGFA has a membership of about 150 Hong Kong-based organizations, including all major financial institutions dedicated to green finance, as well as many green companies and third-party service providers. Over the past three years, the GFA has launched eight working groups, published a few dozen research reports, organized nearly one hundred events for promotion and capacity building purposes, facilitated a large number of dialogues between the private sector and regulators, and actively participated in international cooperation such as the Green Investment Principles for the Belt & Road and the Financial Centers for Sustainability. The work of the HKGFA has received strong support from the HKSAR government and regulators and benefitted from active participation and cooperation from our members and partner institutions.

I am extremely pleased to see that over the past few years, Hong Kong has gained global recognition for its strong growth of the green bond market, and its leadership in introducing ESG disclosure requirements and product innovation.  With both mainland China and Hong Kong having recently declared their goals to achieve carbon neutrality, I believe that Hong Kong’s green finance market will play a more important role in mobilizing financing for achieving net zero in energy, transportation, building and other sectors. I hope that, through our collection efforts, we will further enhance the capacity of Hong Kong’s financial sector in developing ESG products, to deploy advanced tools for analysing environmental and climate risks, and help emerging market economies to green their financial systems.

Let me thank IESGB once again for launching the ESG award program. My big congratulations to all award recipients, and I wish today’s ceremony a big success.  Thank you.