Beijing, October 23–24, 2025 — The Asian Development Bank (ADB), together with the Institute of Finance and Sustainability (IFS), and the Capacity-building Alliance of Sustainable Finance (CASI) successfully convened the regional capacity-building workshop “Driving Change: Lessons from Breakthroughs in Innovative and Sustainable Finance in the People’s Republic of China” in Beijing.
The two-day event gathered over a hundred participants from across ADB developing member countries — including Kazakhstan, Georgia, Azerbaijian, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Mongolia, and Vietnam — alongside Chinese policymakers, financial institutions, private sector leaders, and international experts. The workshop provided a platform for in-depth exchange on innovative practices and regional cooperation in sustainable finance, aiming to translate China’s experience into actionable pathways for shared regional development.
In the opening remarks, Ms. Yun Zhou, Country Operations Head at the People’s Republic of China Resident Mission of ADB, emphasized that reshaping and innovating financial systems is essential to addressing climate change and advancing sustainable development. She highlighted that China has not only taken a leading role globally in policy design, market mobilization, and tool innovation for green finance, but has also successfully integrated sustainable finance into its mainstream development narrative. She noted that the purpose of the workshop is to unpack these Chinese practices and explore how they can offer replicable and adaptable lessons for developing member countries across the Asia-Pacific region, each with its own national context and market structure. Ms. Zhou concluded by calling on all participants to use this platform to strengthen international cooperation and knowledge sharing and to jointly build a more resilient and inclusive regional financial ecosystem.
During the keynote speech, Dr. Ma Jun, President of the Institute of Finance and Sustainability (IFS) and Chairman of CASI, presented a comprehensive overview of China’s green finance ecosystem, drawing on extensive data and real-world case studies to illustrate the country’s journey from top-level policy design to market-driven implementation. He noted that achieving China’s carbon neutrality goals will require an estimated RMB 487 trillion in green and low-carbon investment over the next three decades, a demand that has propelled the rapid growth of one of the world’s largest green finance markets, with outstanding green loans now exceeding RMB 43 trillion and green bonds reaching RMB 2.3 trillion. Dr. Ma outlined the four foundational pillars underpinning China’s progress—taxonomy development, disclosure requirements, financial product innovation, and incentive mechanisms—and highlighted the success of the China–EU Common Ground Taxonomy (CGT) and the Multilateral Common Ground Taxonomy (MCGT). He also introduced CASI, an initiative aligned with the G20’s call to scale up capacity building, which aims to become a global hub for sustainable finance knowledge and to train 100,000 green finance professionals worldwide by 2030, which exemplifies the growing global influence of "China’s solutions" in sustainable finance.
Speaking from a regulatory perspective, Mr. Ye Yanfei, former Director General at the National Financial Regulatory Administration (NFRA), outlined the evolution of China’s green finance framework—from the 1995 credit policy supporting environmental protection to today’s Five Major Financial Systems Strategy. He highlighted key instruments such as the Green Credit Guidelines, Green Bond and Transition Finance Catalogues, and tools like the PBoC’s Carbon Emission Reduction Facility. Mr. Ye identified challenges including immature low-carbon technologies, limited SME support, weak transition incentives for high-emission industries, and incomplete data systems. He called for targeted policy tools, stronger digital infrastructure, and expanded carbon markets, emphasizing the need for a stable, predictable policy environment to effectively direct green capital flows.
Throughout the two-day workshop, participants engaged in thematic discussions covering innovative financial products, transition finance, sustainability disclosure, digital tools, agriculture and low-carbon transition, and local pilot programs. Experts from Chinese regulatory bodies, financial institutions, technology firms, and academia shared practical insights on aligning taxonomies with international standards, designing transition finance frameworks, leveraging ESG disclosure for strategic decision-making, and deploying AI and big data for green asset identification and ESG risk management.
As a highlight of the workshop, representatives from ADB member government agencies and financial institutions engaged in two practice-focused technical discussions. Government and private-sector participants from eight developing member countries—Indonesia, Kazakhstan, the Philippines, Uzbekistan, Thailand, Georgia, Mongolia, and Viet Nam—held in-depth and constructive exchanges on regulatory frameworks, data gaps, financing channels, and international cooperation in the development of green finance. Building on earlier expert presentations on China’s experience, the discussions were closely aligned with the localized needs of each economy and mapped out potential pathways for advancing sustainable finance through regional collaboration. The session showcased the strong dynamism and innovation of public and private stakeholders across Asia and the Pacific, as well as their shared commitment to addressing regional challenges through cross-border cooperation and knowledge sharing, providing a vivid link between China’s experience and its global application.
In concluding, Ms. Zhou thanked China’s financial regulators, the Government of Luxembourg, and the Institute of Finance and Sustainability, and emphasized three key takeaways—credibility, inclusion, and collaboration—as the foundation for future progress.
