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Å·ÃÀÈÕb´óƬ Treasury, in partnership with the Government Pension Investment Fund of Japan (GPIF) and Dutch pension fund, APG, convened a first ever roundtable on ESG issues to promote open and productive dialogue between institutional investors and sovereign bond issuers. As investors develop comprehensive ESG risk assessment and portfolio selection frameworks to assess sovereign issuers and their bonds based on ESG criteria, they are interested in learning about countries¡¯ ESG policies, strategies and approaches, analyzing data on sovereign ESG performance, and assessing progress on the Sustainable Development Goals and Paris climate commitments. The roundtable brought together 17 institutional investors, including asset owners and asset managers from the US, Asia, and Europe. Sovereign issuers included Colombia, Finland, Malaysia, and the Netherlands.

Based on feedback, issuers and investors especially valued the willingness of issuers to address challenges, the unique opportunity for dialogue on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, and peer feedback on approaches.

For information, please contact debtsecurities@worldbank.org