On September 3, 2021, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) issued the Guiding Opinions on Strengthening Industrial and Financial Cooperation for Green Industrial Development (hereinafter referred to as “the Guiding Opinions”) joint with China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), People's Bank of China (PBoC), China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC).
The document is consist of four chapters:
1) general requirements;
2) key direction of green industrial development;
3) main tasks;
4) supporting measures.
It articulates the sectors and fields that needed to be financially supported, and the financial measures that can be adopted to do so. It is also considered by a few local experts to be the first individual document from the government that precisely targets at industrial green development from a financial perspective
The document is believed to be a specific support to stimulate China’s industrial green development. It is also a response to China’s overall strategy which stated that:
· Finance should be led to serve the physical economy.
Several ICT relevant contents are mentioned in the Guiding Opinion, and they can be generally categorized into two types:
· ICT fields that are directly covered by the document.
· Actions or implementation measure that related to ICT sector (technologies and platforms etc.)
As an official document to deploy strategy and policy for financial resources, the contents summarized above reveal an inclination to traditional industries rather than ICT sectors. Yet experts and stakeholders of the ICT industries in China would presume such trend is caused by a simple precondition: traditional industries and sectors are the ones mostly need more support in order to finish the green transition due to its business nature. Hardware manufactures in ICT sectors shall mainly pay attention to the energy consumption/efficiency improvement and green energy use. The importance of ICT sector precisely lies in the fact that it is technically advanced and its strong capability of reform or upgrade the traditional sectors into a more environmental-friendly status. The tools that ICT sector can offer to do so are more likely to be automation, intelligent manufacturing technologies, and energy tracking/monitoring software or platforms, and many more.
With the implementation of the policies in the Guiding Opinion, a boost will be generated in mentioned sectors for a faster development, thus circumstantially push some revision work in the existing standard in order to keep up with the latest situation.
But for foreign stakeholders, the suggestion would be:
· The financial support should be equal for all enterprises despite the origin, though preference might be put on Chinese companies, Foreign companies (who has already registered in China) that fit in the scope still can make necessary contact or consultation with national/regional authorities to benefit from the new policies.
· Investment agencies and institutes can prioritize the sectors mentioned in the Guiding Opinions as investment candidates. Because such enterprises are more likely to rise up, and the investment to them are more encouraged by the government.
· The ones that own advanced green development service solution may benefit from the market and have more business opportunities in China.
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