he 2nd Global Social Finance Forum-2018 Social Impact Investing Summit (GSFF) was held on 21st Sept., 2018. The Forum was hosted by China Global Philanthropy Institute (CGPI) under the guidance of Shenzhen Municipal People’s Government, Futian District People’s Government, United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and China International Center for Economic & Technical Exchange (CICETE).
The theme of the Forum was “Social Investing as a Force for Good”, which is closely related to the topic of targeted poverty alleviation. Leaders in social finance and impact investing were invited to attend the Forum, exchange concepts of global social finance and cases of theory and practice, promote social investment which is Shenzhen-based but has the whole world in view, jointly build the cooperative platform of impact investing in China, gradually establish the global cross-border cooperative network of social finance, enhance the industrialization social finance projects and take on the global challenge.
During the Forum, Ma Weihua, Chairman of CGPI and former President of China Merchants Bank; Huang Min, Deputy Mayor of Shenzhen Municipal People’s Government; He Jie, Deputy District Director of Futian District People’s Government, and Satish Modi, President of Modi Global Enterprises delivered speeches. Xu Haoliang, Assistant Secretary General of UN, Assistant Administrator and Director of Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, and Li Mingzhong, member of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange Committee of CPC and Deputy General Manager of Shenzhen Stock Exchange delivered keynote speeches. They discussed the latest global trends of social finance and impact investing as well as how China can improve the sustainable development of its philanthropic cause through developing impact investing and social finance and speed up reaching the objective of completely relieving poverty in 2020.
Ma Weihua, Chairman of CGPI and former President of China Merchants Bank, said impact investing and its new investment pattern is different from traditional financial models. It highlights social returns while producing economic returns. In China, although the concept of impact investing was introduced a short while ago, it is developing rapidly. He expects to drive the combination of philanthropy and finance and the philanthropic innovation in the field of impact investing so as to support poverty relief in overcoming the difficult phase and leading social investing as a Force for Good.
Huang Min, Deputy Mayor of Shenzhen Municipal People’s Government said in his speech that Shenzhen is forming its soft power while developing its hard power as an important financial city and innovation capital in China, including the power of philanthropy. While the five concepts of Innovation, Coordination, Green, Openness and Sharing are becoming popular with the public, social finance and impact investing are booming and rising to a new level. The focus of social investing is gradually expanding beyond the economy and society to its positive impact on society and environment.
He Jie, Deputy District Mayor of Futian District People’s Government said in their speech that Futian District shall not only pay attention to economic development, but also to social welfare and social progress as the First District of Kindness. It will not only pursue efficiency and growth, but also fairness and sharing. Futian District echoed the General Secretary by publishing the Three-Year Action Plan of Establishing Shenzhen National Innovative and Exemplary District of Sustainable Development Agenda. It takes the lead in building an impact investing ecosystem and special subject research.
Wang Zhenyao, President of CGPI and Dean of the Beijing Normal University China Philanthropy Research Institute told the guests that the Honey Lake Consensus was jointly initiated by 75 institutions last December and has been officially named Honey Lake Consensus Guild. It is based in Futian with the objective of developing 120 consensus institutions nationwide and published the first impact investing policy in China and started the research and development of the social impact bonds project. The Yunus project has taken root in Shenzhen, the China DAF Charity was registered, global impact investing cooperative network has been set up, and cutting-edge courses and lectures are developed and opened. The landscape of Futian District Impact Investing is taking shape.
Apart from the general session, this Forum also included four parallel sessions with the topics of “Establishing an Ecosystem for Social Impact Investment: Impact Investment and Poverty Alleviation”, “Donor-Advised-Fund: Finance Facilitate Targeted Poverty Alleviation”, “Family Legacy and Innovation & Entrepreneurship-Family Philanthropy”, and “Technology and Philanthropy – The Force of Technology and Sustainable Development”. Additionally, the Forum held roundtables with the themes of “Alleviate Poverty with Impact Investing” and “Social Enterprise Incubation Facilitates Poverty Alleviation”. In the future, CGPI will continue putting the results of this Forum into practice and accelerating the development of impact investing.
For more information, please visit : http://en.cgpi.org.cn/ or contact: [email protected]
SOURCE China Global Philanthropy Institute
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