The conference was co-organized by the French Development Agency (AFD) and India Exim Bank on 21 February 2022 in Paris. The event aims to bring together the major development financial institutions of the Indo-Pacific region and Europe to discuss common sustainable development and strengthen the commitment of these development financial institutions through concerted actions in priority areas: energy and climate transition, infrastructure and digital connectivity, health, blue economy, and biodiversity.

BIDV joined the conference as AFD's main partner in the Asia-Pacific region and one of the key banks in arranging and financing energy investment and development projects in Vietnam. At the conference, Mr. Tran Long - BIDV's Senior Executive Vice President – delivered a speech themed “Speeding up energy transition process: Turning commitments into practical actions". He affirmed that developing renewable energy sources to contribute to limiting greenhouse gas emissions, protecting the environment, and reducing dependence on fossil fuels is an inevitable trend. Mr. Long also shared experiences, plans and actions of BIDV in the process of restructuring financing for the energy sector.

Mr. Tran Long, BIDV's Senior Executive Vice President delivered a speech at the conference

Defining the role of green growth in the energy transition towards sustainable development, since 2018 BIDV has decided to stop considering financing coal-fired power projects and those having negative impacts on the environment. As of 31 December 2021, outstanding loans to coal-fired power projects had decreased to about USD110 million. Meanwhile, BIDV's credits in the field of renewable energy reached more than USD1.7 billion, accounting for 36 percent of loans to renewable energy in Vietnam. BIDV has also included sustainable development and green growth as one of the important goals in the bank's business development strategy for the period 2021 - 2025, with a vision to 2030.

BIDV has successfully mobilized capital sources for green credit from international organizations such as the World Bank for the Renewable Energy Development Project (REDP), the Vietnam Energy Efficiency for Industrial Enterprises (VEEIE)… In particular, in May 2021, BIDV was provided SUNREF non-sovereign credit line of USD100 million by AFD. In just 6 months of implementation, the facility had been fully disbursed by BIDV to support businesses investing in renewable energy.

BIDV has specified regulations on environmental risk assessment when evaluating and approving loans. BIDV is the first bank to issue regulations on the Environmental and Social Risk Management Framework which is applicable to projects financed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and encouraged other projects to apply it. Currently, BIDV is working with the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) and the Climate Bond Initiative (CBI) under the support of the State Bank of Vietnam to develop a standardized framework on green bond issuance. This is the basis for BIDV to aim to be the first bank to successfully issue green bonds according to international standards to finance sustainable green projects at reasonable costs in Vietnam.

One of the largest banks in the Vietnamese banking system, with experience in financing green energy projects, effectively on-lending capital funded by international financial organisations, BIDV is ready to accompany donors to promote sustainable development, contributing to the implementation of the global energy transition campaign.