Furthermore, under the Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Hong Kong is also the designated green finance centre in the area. 12. We also have a strong presence of banks and other financial intermediaries with experienced specialists in green finance, and international institutional investors based in Hong Kong who have made strong commitments to green investments. 13. So there is already strong momentum and an ecosystem here. But there is more that we can do. HKMA’s latest initiatives 14. This brings me to my third point on HKMA’s initiatives – the HKMA’s commitment to fully support green finance to combat climate change. As a bank regulator, one of the largest asset owners globally, and key promoter of market development, we can make use of our various roles and take meaningful actions to support and nurture green finance. We have already been taking a number of concrete actions to drive awareness and development of the market: for example, we co-hosted major conferences last year with the International Capital Market Association, which determines the Green Bond Principles and Social Bond Principles, and with the People’s Bank of China to raise awareness and knowledge of green finance in Hong Kong. To grow the market on green bonds, the HKMA has also been actively reaching out to potential green bond issuers. Building on these efforts, and to further promote green and sustainable finance in Hong Kong, the HKMA announced three further sets of measures in May: 15.
We all are aware from our own history that some kind of instrument and mechanism has always existed to  BIS Review 36/2007  1  facilitate trade and other endeavours. What is abundantly clear, however, is that given the increased mobility of the citizens within the respective SADC member countries between cities and rural areas and at times between member countries, the need for payment instruments and the attendant mechanisms to facilitate safe and efficient remittances is arguably the relatively newer phenomenon. It is therefore the expectation of the Bank of Zambia that the 2007 SADC Payment Systems Regional Conference will discuss some of the most important trends and other strategic priorities confronting banks, payment system businesses, merchants and other service providers involved in the delivery channel for payment and other financial services. This is imperative as it would facilitate the drawing up of a development agenda of future priorities and contextualise the future of payment system oversight. Ladies and Gentlemen, since the establishment of the CCBG a decade ago, methods of effecting payments and other financial transactions have quickly become sophisticated with a trend towards execution in real time electronic media. All this is taking place because consumer confidence is growing in these instruments and mechanisms, which have been supported by growing confidence in SADC member countries’ economies in general and stability of the national financial systems in particular.