The event is part of the 2023 Ho Chi Minh City Economic Forum, which is being held from September 13 to 17.

“Ho Chi Minh City is very well positioned to become a hub for green finance. The vast majority of multinational companies that are present in large numbers here are now committed to green and sustainability goals. The highly educated society and financial institutions here are well aware of the need, so the potential for green finance is significant,” said Vietnam CCO Ramachandran A.S. (RamC) in his speech.

According to a detailed research report published by Citi in July, there is a $1.7 trillion investment gap to limit the negative impacts of climate change on the planet and its people.

The public sector cannot fund such an investment alone, so 70 per cent of all climate finance must come from the private sector.

Several foreign banks present in Vietnam are therefore Working Group members of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, and have committed to collaborating with the Vietnamese government to raise private finance to support Vietnam’s energy transition.

This is called the Just Energy Transition Partnership, and it has initial funding of $15.5 billion. Half of the budget is coming from the private sector, and the other half from multilateral development institutions.

Citi has provided short- and medium-term finance for green projects, as well as to purchase green coffee from Vietnamese agents and farmers that meets Rainforest Alliance certified standards. This has helped increase both sustainability and farmers' incomes.

In 2022, Citi executed the first voluntary carbon credits transaction with a developer in Vietnam. The project aims to distribute approximately 850,000 low-emission cook stoves and 364,000 water purifiers to over 350,000 low-income rural households in Vietnam.

Following the first offtake transaction in 2022, Citi closed another in February, in which it acted as an arranger and structurer in the first-ever emission reduction-linked bond with the World Bank.

This enabled prepayment financing for the project developer to manufacture and distribute 300,000 water purifiers to 8,000 schools in Vietnam.

Citi also secured the offtake of carbon credits generated from this project, which enabled access to clean drinking water for 2 million children and helped reduce CO₂ emissions by 3 million tonnes over five years.

There are discussions to set up an International Finance Centre in Ho Chi Minh City. Establishing a carbon trading market for Asia would be a great way to create a value proposition for this centre, in addition to promoting the issuance of green and sustainable bonds for Asia.

RamC stated, “We are optimistic about Vietnam’s prospects for continued economic growth in 2023 and beyond. We look forward to partnering with Ho Chi Minh City and the Vietnamese government to develop an environment that attracts additional investment and drives innovation and sustainable growth in the country.”

Citi was the first US bank to establish a presence in Vietnam 29 years ago, acting as a trusted advisor for large Vietnamese companies and multinationals in the country.