Bhutan Sovereign Green Bond

Hauman Yeung, Director of Corporate Advisory and Sustainability, Ascent Partners shared his extensive experience at Bhutan Sovereign Green Bond workshop hosted by Bhutan government and Coordinated by The UN ESCAP during the 18th-19th December 2019 in Bhutan.

Ascent Partners is a professional firm providing a full range of ESG reporting services covering TCFD Disclosures, ESG Disclosures and ESG Advisory. We have in-house qualified teams dedicated to various genres of ESG-related tasks to make sure the highest level of service quality.

Coordinated by The UN ESCAP, a team of four experts from the PolyU CESEF Center has participated in a National workshop on Capital Market Development in Bhutan during December 18-19, 2019. As a part of ESCAP’s technical assistance to Bhutan, this national workshop aimed to engage with the Ministry of Finance, various Government agencies, and key stakeholders to help facilitate the issuance of Bhutan’s first sovereign bonds. The major objectives of this workshop were to discuss and assess the progress made following the 2018 Workshop on Supporting Asia-Pacific LLDCs and Bhutan in Mobilizing Resources for the SDGs with a focus on the following:

• The latest trends and issue in the development of domestic capital markets.
• Key progress and challenges on Bhutan’s efforts towards the issuances of sovereign bonds.
• Capacity building and engaging with the Ministry of Finance and various Government agencies, banks, institutional investors and key stakeholders to help facilitate an issuance of Bhutan’s first sovereign bonds.
• Inclusive feedback from relevant Government officials, policymakers and private sector.

This meeting included presentations given by government officials, experts, practitioners of Bhutan related development cooperation, along with the representatives of relevant international and/or regional organizations. Government officials and policymakers from the following institutions will be targeted: (I) Ministry of Finance, Economy and Planning; (II) National Development Banks and financial institutions; (III) Royal Securities Exchange of Bhutan Ministry of Foreign Affairs; (IV) Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan; and (V) Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The workshop was successful and feedbacks from both Bhutan Government and UN ESCAP indicate that they are pleased with the advice from the PolyU CESEF team. It is indicated that CESEF will be invited to participate more in the Sovereign Green Bond issuing process, which is being considered by the Bhutanese Government.

Presentation Materials:

Session 2 – Institutional Framework & Regulatory Aspects of Capital
Market Development and Session – 3 Desirable Policy Framework to Facilitate the Development of
Capital Markets:

Moderator – Louis Cheng:

Session 3 – Desirable Policy Framework to Facilitate the Development of
Capital Markets:

Speaker – Hauman Yeung: Hauman Bhutan S3 Edited v3

Speaker – C.S. Agnes Cheng

Session 4 – Green Bond Market Development and Issuance:

Speaker – Louis Cheng

Speaker – Hauman Yeung: Hauman Bhutan S4 Edited v5

Session 8 – Way Forward:

Speaker – David Broadstock