Phnom Penh 07 March 2023, GGGI and Ministry of Environment of Cambodia has conducted a consultation workshop on ‘’Promoting Green Innovative Finance in Cambodia’’. The whole day workshop was presided by H.E. Say Samal, Minister of Environment and joined by over 100 representatives of the financial sectors.
The workshop brought together key stakeholders from the government, private banking sector and Microfinance institutions to raise awareness on Green Innovative finance in Cambodia, and to develop recommendations for increasing investment in sustainable and low-carbon projects in Cambodia. Also, the workshop has introduced on-going green innovative finance initiative (e.g., Thematic Bond, carbon financing, climate change financing facility) supported by RGC and development partners (GGGI, MSC, GCF) and financing opportunities from Climate Change financing facilities and GCF readiness project preparation for private banks and MFIs.
The workshop began with a welcome speech by MS. Shomi Kim, Country Representative of GGGI Cambodia, remark by Mr. Raymond Sia Say Guan, Chairman of the Association of Banks in Cambodia and Chief Executive Officer of Canadia Bank Plc, and opening remark by H.E. Say Sam Al, Minister of Environment.
In his opening remark, Minister Say Sam Al, said that Cambodia must follow up with the trend and capture the opportunity including the Green Transformation of the banking sector for Cambodia. he continued we must work with clear vision and has pre-active approach to all opportunities so that Cambodia can stay competitive.
The Association of Banks in Cambodia is currently a member of Sustainable Banking and Finance Network and with the support & guidance from relevant stakeholders such as IFC have developed and launched the Cambodia Sustainable Finance Principles back in 2016 which has also received the endorsement from National Bank of Cambodia and Ministry of Environment of Cambodia. Mr. Raymond Sia Say Guan, said, in his given remark, “Today workshop is another milestone. The workshop will bring together key stakeholders from Government, banking & financial sector to Raise awareness on Green Innovative finance and scale up access to climate finance for Cambodia Banks & MFIs,’’ The head of an association with 47 member banks, continued that he is confident that this workshop will assist bankers to assess the Climate Change financing facilities and Green Climate Fund (GCF).
Green innovative finance promotion in Cambodia is an important step in helping the country transition to a greener and more sustainable economy through private sector engagement in accessing climate finance. However, despite ongoing efforts, the financial demands remain high for Cambodia’s future resource mobilization for climate adaptation, which looks toward a reasonable mix of national and international funds and in line with the progress in Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. The total funding required for all mitigation actions is over US$5.8 billion and that for all adaptation actions is over US$2 billion. Green innovative finance in various forms, which refers to the use of financial instruments and mechanisms to support sustainable and low-carbon projects, can help accelerate the green investment mobilization to realize the climate mitigation and adaptation actions.
Ms. Shomi Kim, GGGI Cambodia Country Representative, said, “Today’s workshop is a great fruit of the joint work between GGGI and Ministry of Environment on how we can support the private sector in understanding better climate finance and identifying opportunities for climate finance. I am very pleased to introduce very promising project pipelines that private banking sector can participate and be benefited from. Also, the workshop will serve the purpose of introducing and consultation of GCF readiness project on private bank accreditation to GCF which we are currently developing jointly with Ministry of Environment.”
Following the workshop, GGGI and MoE will send out the criteria and Expression of Interest (EOI) application form to members of Association Bank in Cambodia (ABC). Interested banks in GCF accreditation support through GCF readiness project can submit EOI by 17 March 2023.