Inspection Panel Chairman Gonzalo Castro de la Mata and Panel Member Jan Mattsson joined representatives of other Independent Accountability Mechanisms in meetings with Chinese government and banking representatives on November 21 and 22 in Beijing to discuss the issue of accountability. They met on November 21 with officials of the Ministry of Finance and the Department of International Economic and Financial Cooperation to talk about the experience of the accountability mechanisms in ensuring adherence to environmental and social policies and providing redress to affected communities in the context of international investments by multilateral development banks and overseas investments by Chinese banks. On November 22, they took part in a one-day workshop with Chinese banks with substantial overseas investments in the context of the country’s One Belt, One Road Initiative to discuss adherence to highest environmental and social standards and the establishment of redress mechanisms. The workshop was organized by the China Banking Regulatory Commission, China Banking Association, the Green Finance Committee of the China Society for Finance and Banking, and the Greenovation Hub. In his presentation to the workshop, Mr. Castro de la Mata explained the Panel’s history, mandate and procedures and discussed the importance of adhering to social and environmental rules, and the business cost of not doing so. While in Beijing, the IAM representatives also met with Jin Liqun, president of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, to discuss accountability in the multilateral context. Joining the two Panel members at the meetings were Osvaldo Gratacos, vice president, Compliance Advisor Ombudsman, and Dingding Tang, chair of the Asian Development Bank’s Compliance Review Panel.
* Photo was taken in Beijing on 21th Nov. From left to right: Bai Yunwen (GHUB), Wang Qingrong (CBRC), Katharine Lu (Friends of the Earth), Irene Bain (AIIB), Munawar Alam(ADB), Hamid Sharif (AIIB), Gonzalo Castro de la Mata (WB), Dinding Tang (ADB), Ye Yanfei (CBRC), Natalie Bridgeman Fields (Accountability Council), Jan Mattsson (WB), Christina Sadeler (Heinrich Boell Fundation), Osvaldo Gratacos (IFC), Yin Hong (ICBC), Cao Yang (MEP-FECO)
Source: Inspection Panel
