ASEAN
Capital Markets Forum: Addressing the Challenges Related to Sustainable
Development, Inclusivity and Resiliency for the Benefit of the Member
States
The ASEAN Capital
Markets Forum (ACMF) has achieved its commitment in 2022 to promote
Sustainable Development, Inclusivity and Resiliency, despite the impact
of the global economic downturn and COVID-19 pandemic. The ACMF convened
its 37th ACMF Chairs' Meeting today at Sofitel Phnom Penh Phokeethra
Hotel, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, hosted by the Securities and Exchange
Regulator of Cambodia (SERC).
The
Meeting endorsed the ASEAN Sustainability-Linked Bond Standards and the
ASEAN Sustainable and Responsible Fund Standards, which will support
ASEAN in narrowing the gap toward the 2030 Agenda in combating climate
change. In addition, the endorsement of these two standards indicated
the group's commitment to meet the ACMF Action Plan 2021-2025 Strategic
Objectives. The meeting also took note of the progress in the
development of the ASEAN Taxonomy for Sustainable Finance by the ASEAN
Taxonomy Board (ATB), of which the ACMF is one of its four component
sectoral bodies. Following stakeholder consultations on Version 1, which
involved the public and private sectors as well as international
standards setters, inputs received will be used by the ATB in developing
the next version of the ASEAN Taxonomy.
ACMF
has made remarkable progress in promoting sustainable finance. As of
October 21, 2022, issuances amounting to US$29.82 billion have been
issued under the ASEAN Green, Social and Sustainability Bond Standards,
which were introduced in 2017 and 2018. The launch of the ASEAN
Sustainability-Linked Bond Standards and the ASEAN Sustainable and
Responsible Fund Standards will widen the range of sustainable
investments in ASEAN, thereby accelerating sustainable development
across the region.
In addition, to
promote and publicize cross-border offerings of funds and collective
investment schemes in ASEAN, the ACMF endorsed the ASEAN Collective
Investment Schemes (ASEAN CIS) Digital Repository. The Meeting also
acknowledged the progress of the ACMF Market Development Program (A-MDP)
and supported the creation of more experience- and knowledge-sharing
programs among members to respond to the needs of the ACMF members and
ensure that all members benefit from these programs.
To
promote sustainability disclosure across ASEAN and to enhance the voice
of ASEAN in international standard-setting, the ACMF engaged with the
International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) to discuss and
convey the ASEAN perspective on the draft ISSB standards, focusing on
the areas of interoperability, proportionality in implementation and
phasing in of industry-specific metrics. This engagement with the ISSB
lays the foundation for future collaboration, and would help ACMF
evaluate the feasibility of adopting ISSB standards based on each
jurisdiction's own legal and regulatory arrangements with respect to
international standards, in a way that promotes consistent and
comparable sustainability disclosures across ASEAN.
The
Meeting was pleased to note that the ASEAN Corporate Governance
Scorecard (ACGS) Awarding Ceremony is expected to be held virtually in
December 2022. The Meeting also acknowledged the efforts taken by the
ACMF to enhance and promote corporate governance in the region through
strengthening the collaboration with the ADB and OECD, which will be
another key catalyst to boost transparency and market confidence in
ASEAN.
The Meeting acknowledged and
appreciated the efforts of the ACMF in promoting mobility of
professionals in the markets and took note of developments in digital
assets in ASEAN through the updates and the experience sharing of the
members.
ACMF expressed its
gratitude to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for their support in
providing ACMF with technical assistance as well as expert guidance to
foster capital market development throughout the ASEAN region.
ACMF
also thanked the Sustainable Finance Institute Asia (SFIA) and the
Industry Advisory Panel under the Joint Sustainable Finance Working
Group of the ACMF and the ASEAN Working Committee on Capital Market
Development (WC-CMD) for their continuous support for and efforts in
developing ASEAN's sustainable capital markets.
The
Meeting also witnessed the handover of the ACMF Chairmanship from the
ACMF Chair of 2022, the Securities and Exchange Regulator of Cambodia,
to the Otoritas Jasa Keuangan (OJK), Indonesia for 2023, with the Lao
Securities Commission Office (LSCO) as Vice-Chair.
The
Meeting ended successfully with a united commitment to continue to
implement the ACMF Action Plan 2021-2025 in pursuit of the ACMF Vision
2025.
----END-----
Note-to-Editors
About the ACMF
The
ACMF is a high-level grouping of capital market regulators from all 10
ASEAN jurisdictions, namely Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao
PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam.
The ACMF is currently chaired by Securities and Exchange Regulator of
Cambodia. The next ACMF Chair will be the Indonesian Financial Services
Authority (Otoritas Jasa Keuangan/OJK).
More information on the ACMF and its initiatives can be found at the ACMF website at www.theacmf.org.
For media queries, please contact:
Securities and Exchange Regulator of Cambodia
Members of the Media may contact Ms. SENG Soklin at s_soklin@serc.gov.kh or Mr. KHAT Bunkheang at k_bunkheang@serc.gov.kh