In the last decade, Chinese enterprises actively explore and develop overseas business which promotes economic development and employment in the countries of investment. However, due to the lack of understanding on social and environmental regulations and cultures of target regions or countries, and required communication and information disclosure are not sufficient, some enterprises suffer economic and reputation losses. “Going out” also means “bringing in”, accumulating experience in environmental risk management investing responsibly and leading the global green economy transformation, are challenges faced with “going out”, but also a rare opportunity. Since 2013, we regularly issue “Observation on China Overseas Investment” focusing on China’s “going out” and the global ecological issues, showing diverse views, identifying real problems and solving them.
From a perspective of environmental and social risk management in overseas investment, we followed and analyzed new policies and major events of the latter of 2017.
Over the spring and summer in 2017, the “Belt and Road” Forum for International Cooperation and the AIIB’s Second Annual Meeting were successively held. The Forum outlined a new roadmap for global strategy while the latter focused on sustainable strategies for development finance and governance practices at the operational level.
On March 23, total number of ADB members reached 70. Moreover, China’s reinforced comprehensive management on capital outbound is a significant trend in the spring of 2017.
This issue probes into the investment priorities and governance model of the NDB by focusing on the appointment of management personnel, cooperation partnerships, first batch of projects and operational policies. Discussed in the current issue are also the ways that the NDB achieves responsible investment and promotes sustainable development, by introducing the environmental and social policies of Multilateral Development Banks(MDBs).
This alert presents information on its first batch of projects, a brief analysis of the final Environmental and Social Framework, as well as commentaries from stakeholders including civil organizations, scholars and commercial bank managers, concentrating on the three standards – “financially sustainable, environmentally friendly and socially acceptable”.