What is the Agricultural Bank of China doing?

Do you want to know what the Agricultural Bank of China has accomplished in the ten years since the declaration of the motto of sustainable development? The following key elements can be found by looking at the official website and online resources:

1. Conducting international business ：By opening branches and offices in important markets around the globe, ABC has increased the scope of its international operations. With this growth, ABC will be able to better serve its international clients' requirements and assist with their sustainability initiatives. Since the 1980s, ABC has begun to operate internationally. 2015 saw the opening of both the European headquarters of ABC in London and a cross-border financial services hub in Paris, France. By locating its Middle East regional headquarters in Dubai, ABC stepped up its Middle East footprint in 2018. Overall, through persistent overseas expansion over the years, Agricultural Bank of China has built a complete global network of overseas business relationships, continued to increase the number of its overseas clients, and strengthened its partnerships with foreign financial institutions, further increasing its influence and competitiveness in the global financial market.
2. Implementing sustainable development practices internally ：As part of its internal sustainability initiatives, ABC works to lessen its carbon impact, boost energy efficiency, and encourage sustainable purchasing. These initiatives support sustainable development objectives linked to climate action and sustainable consumption while minimising the Bank's environmental effect.
3. Promoting financial inclusion ：As part of its efforts to advance financial inclusion, (Kong et al., 2014) ABC has expanded its selection of financial products to better serve various customer groups and offered financial services to underserved areas. This promotes the sustainable development objectives linked to economic growth and social participation and reduces poverty and inequality.  (Corrado & Corrado, 2017) Financial inclusion can therefore be a crucial tool for placing economies on a trajectory of sustainable growth by enabling people to take advantage of wider economic possibilities. Agents who have access to financial services, particularly loans, may be better able to plan their long-term spending and investing, carry out profitable activities, and respond to negative shocks.
4. Development of innovative financial products ：ABC has created cutting-edge financial services and products to promote sustainable growth. For instance, the bank provides green bonds (Banga, 2018) to fund environmentally friendly initiatives and has created agricultural insurance products to assist farmers in risk management and productivity enhancement (Sinha et al., 2021). By the end of September, the bank's green credit business total in counties had increased by more than 33% and reached RMB1 trillion, accounting for 40% of the business. 
5. Increasing investment in sustainable development ：In sustainable development initiatives like clean technology, organic agriculture, and renewable energy, ABC has expanded its investment. These initiatives support sustainable economic development while minimising the negative environmental effects of economic activity. It has actively supported branches to develop innovative financial products and service models with regional characteristics in recent years and has introduced novel products like loans for ecological restoration, loans for rural habitat, and loans for national reserve forests.  
   
   
   

• To actively support the preservation and use of black land as well as the enhancement of grain production quality and efficiency, the ground-breaking "Black Earth Granary Loan" was introduced in Jilin Province. 
• In Fujian Province, the "Wuyi Rock Tea Small and Micro Enterprise Loan" as well as other products were actively developed to effectively support the growth of the Wuyi Mountain tea industry. 

• Construction of projects to increase the carbon sink capacity of the regional bamboo industry has received significant support in Zhejiang Province as a result of the creative introduction of the Mori (Bamboo) Forest Carbon Credit.

Reference list:

Banga, J. (2018) “The green bond market: A potential source of climate finance for developing countries,” Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment, 9(1), pp. 17–32. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/20430795.2018.1498617. 

Corrado, G. and Corrado, L. (2017) “Inclusive Finance for Inclusive Growth and development,” Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 24, pp. 19–23. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2017.01.013. 

[Green Finance] Agricultural Bank's green credit balance in counties exceeds RMB 1 trillion (no date) ESG News_ Agricultural Bank of China. Available at: https://www.abchina.com/cn/AboutABC/CSR/SRPractice/202302/t20230203_2236795.htm (Accessed: March 25, 2023).

Kong, R. et al. (2014) “Borrower attitudes, lender attitudes and agricultural lending in rural China,” International Journal of Bank Marketing, 32(2), pp. 104–129. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1108/ijbm-08-2013-0087.

Sinha, A. et al. (2021) “Does Green Financing help to improve environmental & Social Responsibility? designing SDG framework through advanced quantile modelling,” Journal of Environmental Management, 292, p. 112751. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.112751.