On the occasion of opening the Bo’ao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference 2019, the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) and the Luxembourg Stock Exchange (LuxSE) signed a supplemental agreement for the Green Bond Info Channel Cooperation Agreement on March 27, 2019, and officially launched the eastward information display of green bonds. It offered a new model for the international cooperation in green finance in the capital market. SSE President Jiang Feng and LuxSE CEO Robert Scharfe signed the supplemental agreement on behalf of the two exchanges. Li Keqiang, Premier of China’s State Council, and Xavier Bettel, Prime Minister of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, witnessed the signing ceremony.
The SSE and the LuxSE are both leading stock exchanges that advocate sustainable development, and they have carried out active cooperation in green finance. In September 2017, the two exchanges signed the appendix of the Memorandum of Understanding on strengthening green bonds’ cooperation, reaching an intent on the information in green bonds; in June 2018, they reached a consensus on display of green bond information cooperation and signed the “Green Bond Info Channel” cooperation agreement, displaying the information of green bonds listed on the SSE at the LuxSE (westward). By the end of February 2019, 19 green bonds listed on the SSE have been displayed at the LuxSE.
The signing of this supplemental agreement has expanded the scope of green bond information cooperation. In other words, the information of the green bonds listed on the LuxSE will be displayed on the SSE website (eastward), which will provide Chinese investors with an efficient and transparent channel to obtain the information of green bonds listed on the LuxSE and bring convenience for them to allocate high-quality international green assets.
The SSE has always paid great attention to and made careful plan for the development of green finance in the world. It has set up the Leading Group on Promoting the Green Finance and Sustainable Development to fully boost the innovation and development of green finance. In April 2018, the SSE released the “Vision and Action Plan for Green Finance (2018-2020)”, and took 14 specific measures in the five areas of “strengthening the support of the stock market for green development”, “proactively developing the green bonds”, “vigorously advancing green investment”, “deepening international cooperation in green finance” and “enhancing research and promotion for green finance”, in a bid to press ahead with the development of green finance. In strengthening the international cooperation in green finance, the “Vision and Action Plan” has mentioned to intensify the talks and cooperation with the exchanges of countries along the “Belt and Road” in terms of green finance products, green finance information, market rules and systems, market infrastructure construction, self-regulation and risk management. The SSE officially launched the green bond pilot in March 2016, and it piloted the “Belt and Road” Bonds in March 2018 and encouraged the issuance of the “Belt and Road” green bonds to support the construction of the green “Belt and Road”.
Later, the SSE will continue to implement the instruction of the China Securities Regulatory Commission on supporting exchanges to involve in the international talk and cooperation in green finance and steadily advance all the tasks specified in the “Vision and Action Plan for Green Finance (2018-2020)”, in a bid to propel the green finance development in the world.