Indonesia becomes first Asian green bond issuer

Rupiah, the currency of Indonesia. (Source: Reuters)

Jakarta (VNA) - Indonesia on February 22 launched a five-year green Sukuk bond, becoming became the first Asian country to sell "green" bonds internationally.

The launch took place amidst investors’ increasing interest in climate-friendly investment projects.

According to the UK news agency Reuters, at least 300 billion USD will be mobilised from the issuance. 

The Indonesian government has yet to reveal the plan on using the amount collected from the green bond issuance.

Global green bond issuance hit a record for the fifth consecutive year in 2017. Statistics by UK-based Climate Bonds Initiative showed that in 2017, 155.5 billion USD worth of green bonds were sold globally.

In Asia, Chinese and Indian companies have increasingly turned to the green market to finance environmentally friendly projects but their governments had until now stayed away. Worldwide, countries to have sold sizeable amounts of green bonds include Poland - the first-ever - and France.-VNA