Group Photo: AFD reception cocktail graced by French Ambassador His Excellency Guillaume Lemoine and New Zealand High Commissioner His Excellency Peter Zwart along with other financial and private sector senior executives.

September 6, 2024

The Agence Française de Développement’s (AFD) Financial System Division visited Papua New Guinea from 2 – 6 September to carry out consultations with stakeholders involved in PNG; ‘s financial sector. The visit is part of AFD’s Pacific Regional Program, Greening the Pacific Financial Systems Program (GPFS) following its €6 million grant agreement signed in March 2024 between AFD and the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI).  From this grant, a total of €2.8 million has been dedicated to support PNG’s Inclusive Green Finance Project (IGFP) implementation. Flagship deliverables from the program will include a Green Refinancing Facility with an initial €1.8 million allocated for capitalization. The Green Finance Centre (GFC) is the mandated entity under the Bank of Papua New Guinea (BPNG) to oversee this implementation.

The visit was led by AFD’s Financial System Division representative Mr. Damien Serra accompanied by AFD PNG Country Representative Mr. Benoit Chassattee and French technical assistant to the Department of National Planning & Monitoring (DNPM) Ms. Marion Reinosa-Dinh. It was aimed to validate and close the inception phase of the GPFS program for PNG’s component.

The GPFS program in PNG is implemented by GFC under the technical assistance of GGGI in collaboration with BPNG. Its focus is to improve the capacity of financial institutions in PNG to manage climate risks, mobilize greater capital to meet the costs of climate change, and develop transformative financial initiatives in the country.

The PNG component under the GPFS program will complement the ongoing efforts of the GFC under the IGFP Program. The IGFP program was spearheaded by the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s (NZ-MFAT) Low Emission Climate Resilient Development (LERCRD) Program under which PNG was able to develop its Inclusive Green Finance Policy, which is made up of a Green Taxonomy, and Green Finance Roadmap. Together, these initiatives aim to advance climate finance solutions, promoting low-emission development strategies and green financial policies within PNG. The synergy between the GPFS and LECRD programs will further strengthen efforts to address climate change through innovative financial frameworks.

As part of AFD’s visit, several stakeholders that are involved with the IGFP program were consulted. These included the Bank of Papua New Guinea, Centre for Excellence in Financial Inclusion, Credit Guarantee Corporation, BSP Financial Group, ANZ Bank, Kina Bank, National Development Bank, Women’s Micro Bank, Nationwide Microbank Kumul Petroleum Holdings Ltd, Department of Treasury, Climate Change & Development Authority, New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade, Australian Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade, and International Finance Corporation (PNG Office). The consultations proved to be useful giving valuable insights on sustainable finance in PNG which would help team in accomplishing the mission objectives.

The highlight of the visit was AFD hosting a reception cocktail graced by French Ambassador His Excellency Guillaume Lemoine and New Zealand High Commissioner His Excellency Peter Zwart along with other financial and private sector senior executives.

Ambassador Lemoine in his remarks acknowledged Mr. Serra’s mission to PNG to finalize the implementation action plan for GFC and to materialize the commitment made by French President Macron and PNG Prime Minister Marape. He praised highly the collaboration between BPNG, GGGI, and AFD on greening PNG’s financial sector and that he is proud that France is helping PNG in the fight against climate change.  

Mr. Serra too spoke at the occasion. He stated that the mission was an excellent opportunity to see the progress made so far by BPNG with support from GGGI to operationalize the GFC. He said this transition of greening PNG’s financial sector to a sustainable one is a long journey and he commended highly the willingness shown by all stakeholders involved.

Under AFD’s generous grant support, GFC will be working closely with respective stakeholders to develop a Green Refinancing Facility, develop a market-specific Green Catalogue aligned to the Green Taxonomy, and carry out various capacity-building workshops on Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) guidelines.