Accelerating Social Value Investment for China's Sustainable Development: Li Wen's Insight

The Social Enterprise (Beijing) Summit was successfully held in Beijing on April 7, 2023, attracting various participants from national government departments, social enterprises, financial institutions, impact investment institutions, foundations, experts, scholars, and industry service organizations. The theme of this summit was "Social Enterprise High-Quality Development to Promote Common Prosperity," exploring new trends in the high-quality development of social enterprises, including policy support, the establishment of a financial service system, social enterprise capacity enhancement, and industry ecology construction.

Ms. Li Wen,Head of Research Institute at China Alliance of Social Value Investment   , delivered a keynote speech at the summit, proposing that China needs to accelerate research and application of social value investment evaluation. Social value investment is an investment form that pursues measurable social value while considering economic returns, highly compatible with China's new development concept, and more suitable for China's national conditions and the needs of social innovation practice for high-quality development. Ms. Li believes that there is broad room for the quantitative evaluation of social value in China.

Currently, a number of international evaluation tools have gradually formed standard evaluation tools, such as the "IRIS Catalog," whichhas led to the standardization and systematization of impact investment. Institutions such as the CASVI are also researching social value evaluation standards that are suitable for China's national conditions and can meet the needs of institutional use. Under the guidance of China's new development concept and high-quality development strategy, social value investment will usher in significant development opportunities. Ms. Li calls for the construction of a new social value investment ecology that covers all parties, forming a closed loop of co-creating social value through cooperation, standard setting, development promotion, and value creation.