Alliance News | CASVI, NSD PKU and​ Bosera Funds Jointly Launches Sustainable Finance Innovation Lab

On September 19, 2019, the "Sustainable Finance Innovation Lab (SFIL)", jointly sponsored by CASVI, National School of Development (NSD) at Peking University and Bosera Funds, held a launching ceremony at Peking University. CASVI President Ma Weihua, NSD Dean Yao Yang and Jiang Xiangyang, General Manager of Bosera Funds signed the project as representatives of the initiating organizations, signaling the formal start of the project.

This collaboration sets up a platform for sustainable finance innovation in the NSD. As we transition from a single-minded pursuit of economic growth to a high quality sustainable development, we should uphold the principles of being open and able to innovate together, encouraging policy makers, scholars, industry leaders to cooperate. They bring forth policy suggestions and practical recommendations, products and plans for execution in the market, and also introduce the “Chinese experience” to the broader international market. Thereby exploring a sustainable finance mode suitable for China, where finance leads in achieving the goal of sustainable development and high quality development.

NSD President Yao Yang expressed in his speech that sustainable development has always been a focus of NSD. With the open platform in NSD as a basis, projects can develop models for sustainable finance that are tested through social experiments and then implemented throughout the country.

In his speech, CASVI Chairman Ma Weihua highlights the relevance of sustainable finance to China’s Five Major Development Concepts in supporting the transformation and high-quality development of China's economy. He also pointed out that in order to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, there is an annual funding gap of about $2.5 trillion in emerging countries alone, and efforts of the government alone is not enough. It is necessary to mobilize social, investment and financial forces to participate as well. He expressed his wishes for this collaboration to contribute to the sustainable development of China, and ultimately the world.

Jiang Xiangyang, General Manager of Bosera Funds, points out that the project builds upon the academic platform of the NSD, and gathers elites from various sectors and backgrounds to conducts in-depth research on the frontier issues of sustainable development, providing research support for decision-making. "It also provides guidance for our investment institutions to do a good job in sustainable development investment. We hope that in the future, more societal forces can join in the research and exploration of sustainable development finance.”

Collins Li, head of the United Nations Sustainable Finance (UNSIF) Asia-Pacific Region, delivered a keynote speech on "The Present and Future of Sustainable Development Finance". She describes finance as a means of resource allocation, and that sustainable finance, through resource allocation can lead us to a better future. She hopes that in this first pilot project of Sustainable Finance Innovation Lab in China, systematic changes can be brought about through application across different levels.

NSD Professor Wang Chao, who is leading the academic research for the project, believes that in view of the characteristics of the current era of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA era) and the systematic sustainable development, the SFIL project is a way to deal with the situation, in the form of a social action lab. Regarding the SFIL, it is "first, a platform for co-creation, requiring as many stakeholders as possible to participate in its construction. Second, it will create a space for empowerment, enabling social co-creators to effectively cope with social problems that are super-complex and systematic". In this way there are transformative opportunities for social change, serving as policy consultation and suggestions for the national economy, society and innovators.

The SFIL project will call for participation from all sectors of society, including regulatory authorities, financial institutions, listed companies, non-listed companies, social organizations and third-party supporting organizations, so they can join in the innovation lab as   co-creators to participate in innovative experiments of sustainable finance in a co-creative way, so as to promote the sustainable development of China and the world.

CASVI Chairman on Duty and Director of Institute for Philanthropy at Tsinghua University Wang Ming, China State Construction Engineering Board Secretary Xue Ke Qing, Dean of BiMBA at NSD, Peking University Chen Chun Hua, NSD Assistant Dean and Executive Vice President of Business School Fan Bao Qun, CASVI consultant and former Microsoft CTO Li Jiang, Head of Asia Pacific Ex Japan at Legal & General Investment Management Asia Ltd. David Peng, China Philanthropy Times President Liu Jing, Tencent Research Institute Financial Research Center Deputy Director Du Xiao Yu, China Galaxies Securities Research Center Executive General Manager Wang Guo Ping, China Securities Index R&D Department Director Zhao Yong Gang and CASVI Secretary General Angela Bai were also present for the launching ceremony, and participated in the seminar discussion that followed.