The Philippines remains one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to climate change, making the climate crisis a consistent priority among governments, companies and businesses, and local stakeholders.
To mitigate the effects of climate change, the Philippines has committed to reduce 75% of its emissions by 2030 and scale up efforts towards low-carbon and climate-resilient initiatives. With such ambitious targets, synergies between public and private sectors are looked on to provide coordinated and targeted support towards more sustainable business models, sustainable financing, and investments in climate resiliency.
It is against this backdrop that the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP) and Dutch banking giant ING have announced their renewed partnership for 2023. This relationship names ING as the ECCP’s exclusive banking partner for the year.
“We have had a long-standing relationship with ING as our member since 1991, so we are honored to extend this partnership to focus and weigh in on areas of sustainability, as well as ESG financing and transition in business,” said Florian Gottein, ECCP Executive Director.
ING has been the exclusive banking partner of the Chamber since 2022. Throughout this period, ING has worked closely with ECCP on numerous initiatives such as webinars and forums on the European-Philippines business outlook and facilitating dialogues with key government officials.
The renewed partnership will provide ING, who has been operating in the Philippines since 1990, with a platform to continue lending its global expertise to European businesses and to Philippine companies with a European focus. It plans to continue investing in growing its wholesale banking business by taking advantage of its leading position in M&A advisory, capital markets and the growth prospects in various sectors like renewable energy, technology, media & telecommunications, infrastructure, and financial institutions.
At the same time, ING emphasized that one of the biggest challenges the world faces today is climate change. As a bank, ING recognizes that its greatest impact comes from its financing and advisory activities.
“At ING, we see that concerted collaborative and consensus-based efforts are needed to accelerate climate-action and mission-oriented business,” said ING country manager, Jun Palanca. “This is why we engage with partners such as ECCP, whose sustainability-related
advocacies covering energy, water management, and circular economy, among others and their extensive involvement in policymaking, have deeply resonated with our bank.”
“Together with the ECCP, we look forward to being at the forefront and playing a stronger role in financing change, sharing knowledge and using our influence to guide companies towards a more sustainable way of doing business,” Palanca added.
ING serves more than 40 million customers worldwide of which eleven of its markets are in Asia-Pacific. The bank has spanned more than 30 years of operations in the Philippines.
As part of its sustainability thrusts, ING has funded billions worth of euros towards sustainable projects through green loans, green bonds, and other innovative products and financing structures such as its Sustainability Improvement Loan. ING has also launched numerous products aimed at encouraging companies to get measured on their environmental, social and governance performance (ESG) goals.
Earlier this year, the ECCP together with ING organized the European Ambassadors’ Meeting that covered recent political and economic developments in the Philippines and in ASEAN; European-Philippines business community’s policy and legislative advocacies. Updates on the current business environment and how the Philippines fares compared to its ASEAN peers were also discussed.