Message from H.E. Sou Socheat, SERC Director General and Chair of ACMF 2022.
The ASEAN Capital Market Forum (ACMF) and the Securities and Exchange Regulator of Cambodia (SERC) as Chair have had another remarkable year in 2022.
ACMF is a high-level grouping of capital market regulators from all 10 ASEAN jurisdictions, established in 2004 under the auspices of the ASEAN Finance Ministers.
The primary responsibility of the ACMF is to develop a deep, liquid and integrated regional capital market.
The ASEAN Economic Community Vision (AEC) 2025 outlines “a highly integrated and cohesive regional economy, a competitive, innovative and dynamic community with enhanced connectivity and sectoral cooperation with improvements in regional frameworks, and a more resilient, inclusive and people-oriented, people-centred community, a global ASEAN”.
To support this, ACMF has put in place the ACMF Vision 2025 for an “Inter-connected, Inclusive and Resilient ASEAN Capital Market” and adopted the ACMF Action Plan 2021-2025.
The ACMF Action Plan 2021-2025 set three strategic objectives: (i) fostering growth and recovery with sustainability, (ii) promoting and sustaining inclusiveness, and (iii) strengthening and maintaining orderliness and resilience.
Therefore, to align with the AEC 2025 and the ACMF strategic objectives, as well as in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, SERC, as Chair of ACMF 2022, is focusing on three key priorities: sustainable development, inclusivity, and resiliency.
Acknowledging the roles of the capital market in promoting sustainable development and building recovery from the covid-19 pandemic, ACMF has put in a collective effort towards our mission, with the strong support of our key dialogue and development partner, ADB.
With its consolidatory action in committing to keep the global average temperature rise to as close as possible to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, ACMF has adopted and taken part in many activities and initiatives.
These include the adoption of the Roadmap for ASEAN Sustainable Capital Markets and the ASEAN Green, Social and Sustainability Bond Market.
Under these standards, issuances amounting to USD29.82 billion had been raised as of October 21, 2022, since their introduction in 2017 and 2018.
In addition, ACMF is one of the four sectoral bodies working on developing the ASEAN Taxonomy for Sustainable Finance (ASEAN Taxonomy), which was launched on November 10, 2021.
ACMF has been providing very strong support in the development of the ASEAN Taxonomy, of which Version 2 is expected to be launched in January 2023.
The ASEAN Taxonomy will serve as a common building block enabling an orderly transition and fostering sustainable finance adoption by ASEAN Member States.
Through the unity of its members, ACMF has successfully completed our action plan for 2022 with the launch on October 28, 2022 of key standards – the ASEAN Sustainability-Linked Bond Standards, ASEAN Sustainable and Responsible Fund Standards, the Legal Wrappers for the SDG Bond Toolkit, and the ASEAN Collective Investment Scheme (CIS) Digital Repository.
We have also reactivated our action on the promotion of capacity building for young regulators.
In addition, ACMF works closely with the private sector and international standard charters, and this is the uniqueness of this high-level forum – we always successfully address challenges because we look at both the smaller and the bigger picture.
As Chair of the ACMF, I would like to convey my deepest appreciation to all its members, the Industry Advisory Group, the International Capital Market Association, the Sustainable Finance Institute and ADB for all their support and contributions to the development of sustainability, inclusivity and resiliency in the region.
