At the Kyrgyzstan Green Investment Forum, held on November 23, 2022, by GFC as the Regional Office of the “Green Investment Principles” in Central Asia for the Belt and Road Initiative (GIP), GFC Bishkek and Doscredobank, a key session was held to discuss the draft Taxonomy of Sustainability Projects proposed by the Ministry of Natural Resources, Ecology and Technical Supervision of the Kyrgyz Republic, developed with GFC’s assistance for ESG finance markets.
The Forum in Kyrgyzstan brought together stakeholders from around the Central Asian and broader region to share experiences and best practices in sustainable finance and related financial regulation, including the implications of COP-27 (UN Climate Change Conference) outcomes for the country, as well as to discuss green investment development options for Kyrgyzstan.
The central topic of discussion at the Forum was the preliminary draft Taxonomy of Sustainability Projects (classifier of green, social projects) for Kyrgyzstan, presented by the Deputy Minister of Natural Resources, Ecology and Technical Supervision Beksultan Ibraimov. The document was developed by the Ministry of Natural Resources, Ecology and Technical Supervision of the Kyrgyz Republic with the assistance of the AIFC Green Finance Centre to facilitate further development of the sustainable finance market.
International experts and central bank representatives from countries that had taken the first steps, specifically, China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Georgia, spoke about the approaches and successes in developing and implementing sustainable taxonomies and shared their assessment of the submitted document. The head of the GIP Secretariat, Cheng Lin, noted that the key to effective taxonomy implementation in China has been the widest possible awareness of all banking and capital market participants with this tool. Aigul Kussaliyeva, Managing Director of the AIFC Green Finance Center, who shared Kazakhstan's experiences, emphasized that a external review of Kazakhstan's Draft Green Taxonomy by the leading developer of climate finance standards - the Climate Bond Initiative - was crucial to ensuring that the taxonomy complied with internationally recognized benchmarks. Ayten Rustamova, EBRD Regional Director for Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, expressed support for the initiative to develop a national taxonomy of the Kyrgyz Republic to provide clear standards and criteria for sustainable projects.
The document proposed by the Ministry of Natural Resources, Ecology and Technical Supervision will be further refined by the Ministry of Economy and Commerce of the Kyrgyz Republic, the National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic and other interested state bodies and stakeholders to be submitted for approval by a joint Decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Kyrgyz Republic and the NBKR.
Ways to scale green investments in Kyrgyzstan and the region were discussed at sessions on sustainable financing tools, green transformation of Bishkek city and its prospects for inclusion in Global Green Finance Index, as well as in a webinar from the State Bank of Pakistan aimed at regulators and banks in Central Asia.
On the sidelines of the Forum, a training session from GFC "Fundamentals of ESG investments and the Second Meeting of the Advisory Council of the GIP Regional Office in Central Asia also took place.
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The Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC) is an independent jurisdiction that started operations in 2018. In accordance with the Development Strategy until 2025, the key focus of the AIFC is to consolidate as a universal platform connecting the countries of the EAEU, Central Asia and the Caucasus.
The AIFC Green Finance Centre is an AIFC Organisation which was established to promote the development of green finance in Kazakhstan and Central Asia. The main goal is to attract investments into a sustainable economy with the help of trending financial instruments such as green and social bonds.
In June 2021, the AIFC Green Finance Centre became the regional chapter of the Green Investment Principles in Central Asia for the Belt and Road Initiative (GIP). The Green Investment Principles of the Belt and Road Initiative were announced during the 2nd Belt and Road Initiative Forum in Beijing on April 25, 2019. The tasks of the GIP Regional Office in CA are to interact with local financial institutions and encourage successful participants to join GIP, provide access to international capital markets for regional green projects through the GIP project database, as well as to assist Central Asian banks in greening their activities and issuing green bonds through the implementation of the GIP.
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