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Recently, Amundi-Acba Asset Management participated in the forum initiated by the Shtigen Group

Recently, Amundi-Acba Asset Management participated in the forum entitled "The role of innovative financial instruments in the development of green business" initiated by the Shtigen Group, which brought together representatives of the public, private, expert and public sectors under one roof to present Shtigen ViS investment fund, which was recently registered by the Central Bank of the Republic of Armenia, as well as to discuss the importance and limitations of green finance for the private sector.

At the panel discussion held within the framework of the forum, the prospects of green energy development, the challenges of green financing in RA, including the role of pension and investment funds in green financing were presented.

Hrayr Aslanyan, deputy executive director of Amundi-Acba Asset Management, fund manager, spoke about the obstacles to investing pension funds assets in the real sector of the economy, including green projects.

"Currently, our capital market is not sufficiently developed, with the help of assets, including pension funds assets, should be used to finance various green projects, which require large-scale initial investments. Next are the weak foundations of corporate governance of companies, which directly lead to low confidence among investors in companies, and therefore their low investment attractiveness.

The early resolution of these problems is especially important in the case of pension funds, when we are responsible for the future pension of several hundred thousand people. Such phenomena as limited transparency and accountability, or low trust in them, are among the main obstacles to the development of the capital market, depriving a number of real sector companies of access to financial resources, while also limiting the investment opportunities of pension funds.

The assets of the pension funds are growing at a fast pace and we must invest at least sixty percent of them in AMD, and we are constantly looking for new investment opportunities, healthy projects, such investments that will not endanger the assets of the pension funds. The next factor is the taxonomy of green finance. As mentioned by Mrs. Ghahramanyan, a member of the Central Bank of the Republic of Armenia, a lot of work has already been done in that direction, which is very important so that we all have the same idea of a green, sustainable program.

It is also important what kind of attitude the society and companies have towards the green economy: for example, the attitude of the international community towards green and in general sustainable development is changing very quickly, as a result of which the public exerts enormous pressure on financial organizations that manage their funds to switch to green or sustainable finance, and companies, emphasizing the transition to a green, sustainable economy, to provide long-term additional results for that, they are starting to put forward such programs.

The long-term strategic thinking of these companies is very important, because we often face up problems when the business has a short-term vision. Even if today it is possible to convince international investment companies to invest in traditional bonds, it will hardly be possible in a few years.

When companies begin to develop longer-term strategies, that is, to see their future for several years, even decades, then the role of sustainable, green programs will become important, and they will also gain investment attractiveness. To summarize, there are indeed many challenges, the solution of which requires us to make consistent and joint efforts." 

We wish success and a green future to the Shtigen Group in contributing to the development of the green economy.