SME BlueImpact Asia: Financing Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises that Dominate the Blue Economy

Events

SME BlueImpact Asia: Financing Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises that Dominate the Blue Economy

27 January 2022

Healthy oceans are inextricably linked to global prosperity. Aside from helping to mitigate climate change, ocean ecosystems support the food security and livelihoods of billions of people. However, our oceans are under serious threat.  Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have a critical role in restoring ocean health as they represent 70% of employment and 90% of total enterprises in developing countries across all sectors of the Blue Economy. Yet, SMEs in Asia face an estimated $2 trillion finance gap.

As part of ADB’s first Healthy Oceans Tech and Finance Forum, this spotlight session presented SME BlueImpact Asia, a blended finance platform for SME Blue Economy projects jointly developed by ADB with UNEP and UNDP, leveraging the experience made by BlueInvest Europe, a similar platform recently launched by the European commission.

The session showcased the concept of the platform and how it can be implemented in Asia. To ensure that the SME BlueImpact Asia will reach its full potential and create the expected socio-economic, environmental, poverty reduction, and gender balance impact, stakeholders representing development partners, SMEs, and investors shared their perspectives and recommendations. The discussion covered factors critical to the success of this initiative, such as use of digital technology and de-risking strategies. Concrete initiatives were presented which confirm the presence of numerous Blue Economy SME projects that require financing and can be aggregated in a pipeline of bankable, scalable and replicable transactions across developing Asia. Various asset managers and investors have included Blue SME projects in their investment strategies and showed interest to support SME BlueImpact Asia by matching catalytic funding.

Program and Learning Materials: 
Date Session / Activity Presentation Material Speaker(s)
27 Jan 2022 Introduction Introduction
Thomas Kessler introduces the session.
Thomas Kessler
27 Jan 2022 Welcome Remarks Welcome Remarks
ADB Director General Suzanne Gaboury in her welcome remarks highlighted the importance of mobilizing private sector financing for SMEs.
Suzanne Gaboury
27 Jan 2022 Keynote Speech SMEs as Guardians of Ocean Health & Community Empowerment
Amb. Peter Thomson discusses the need fora systematic approach to financing Blue Economy SMEs.
Peter Thomson
27 Jan 2022 SME BlueImpact Asia - Financing Small-Medium enterprises in the Blue Economy Concept of SME BlueImpact Asia
The presentation discusses the concept of SME BlueImpact Asia, including its objectives, features, governance structure, and metrics.
Michael Adams
27 Jan 2022 From Concept to Implementation through Digitalization
The presentation discusses the key features of the digital finance platform for matching SMEs with private investors.
Kathleen O Leary
27 Jan 2022 Panel – SME BlueImpact Asia Platform UNDP’s Aligned Initiatives & Support
Radhika Lal discusseswhy UNDP and UNEP are supportive of the BlueImpact initiative and how it fits into the programs of UNDP and UNEP.
Radhika Lal
27 Jan 2022 Lessons Learned from BlueInvest
Andreea Strachinescu shares her insights on BlueInvest Europe, which was recently launched and is supervised and funded by the European Commission through...
Andreea Strachinescu
27 Jan 2022 Frameworks for Private Investor Participation
SFIA provides unbiased and credible policy recommendations and implementation support to countries in the region, particularly ASEAN countries.
Eugene Wong
27 Jan 2022 Risk Management for BlueImpact Platform
This presentation discusses de-risking strategies applied by BlueImpact Asia to attract private investments for SMEs.
Joan Fulton
27 Jan 2022 Operating a successful SME Lending platform
Kah Meng Wong shares his experience with Funding Societies in operating a P2P SME lending platform.
Kah Meng Wong
27 Jan 2022 Panel – Public and Private Sector’s Perspectives Sustainable Seaweed Production & Commercial Infrastructure for Scalable Growth
The presentation showcases a project in the seaweed sector that is supported by blockchain technology.
Graham Clark
27 Jan 2022 Panel: Public and Private Sector’s Perspectives Climate Change Mitigation Investment
Climate Fund Managers expressed their interest to invest in blue SMEs.
Georges Beukering
27 Jan 2022 Impact Investing in SMEs
Eugene Tan discusses the opportunities for Blue Economy SMEs in the bond portfolio of Symbiotics.
Eugene Tan
27 Jan 2022 Private Banking & the Sustainable Blue Economy
Based on a survey conducted by Credit Suisse, Marisa Drew shares the perspectives of private investors on financing blue SMEs.
Marisa Drew
27 Jan 2022 Operating the OneBlue Accelerator & Fund
Sameer Narula talks about OneBlueplatform whichhelp a new generation of companies in the Blue Economy transform their relationship with the oceans.
Sameer Narula
27 Jan 2022 Poverty-Environment Action Program and Climate Finance for the Blue Economy
Jonathan Gilman talks about the initiatives of UNDP/UNEP for supporting healthy oceans.
Jonathan Gilman
27 Jan 2022 Q&A
27 Jan 2022 Closing Remarks Closing Remarks
Junkyu Lee provides key points discussed during the session.
Junkyu Lee
Date Session / Activity Presentation Material Speaker(s)
28 Jan 2022 Knowledge Product: Financing the Blue Economy Knowledge Product: Financing the Blue Economy
28 Jan 2022 Blue Market Segments Heatmap Blue Market Segments Heatmap
28 Jan 2022 Country Priorities Heatmap Country Priorities Heatmap
28 Jan 2022 Defining the Boundaries – Methodology Defining the Boundaries - Methodology
28 Jan 2022 Marine and River Ecosystems Marine and River Ecosystems
28 Jan 2022 Fishing and Fisheries Fishing and Fisheries
28 Jan 2022 Seafood Processing and Distribution Seafood Processing and Distribution
28 Jan 2022 Aquaculture and Mariculture Aquaculture and Mariculture
28 Jan 2022 Algaculture Algaculture
28 Jan 2022 Pollution Control Pollution Control
28 Jan 2022 Coastal and Marine Tourism Coastal and Marine Tourism
28 Jan 2022 Coastal Resilience Coastal Resilience
28 Jan 2022 Community Infrastructure Community Infrastructure
28 Jan 2022 Green Ports and Green Shipping Green Ports and Green Shipping
28 Jan 2022 Marine Renewable Energy Marine Renewable Energy
28 Jan 2022 Blue Economy Metrics Blue Economy Metrics
28 Jan 2022 Guide to Blue Economy Metrics Guide to Blue Economy Metrics
28 Jan 2022 Blue Economy Financing Gap Blue Economy Financing Gap
28 Jan 2022 Guide to Investors – Matchmaking Guide to Investors - Matchmaking
28 Jan 2022 Corporate Investors Corporate Investors
28 Jan 2022 Financial Investors Financial Investors
28 Jan 2022 Finance Gap by Market Segments Finance Gap by Market Segments
28 Jan 2022 Guide to Policy Recommendations Guide to Policy Recommendations
28 Jan 2022 Investment Dossiers Investment Dossier - August One
28 Jan 2022 Investment Dossier - Funding Society
28 Jan 2022 Blue finance
28 Jan 2022 MARI Oceans MARI Oceans
28 Jan 2022 Making Seaweed Work for Everyone
Video by Sea Green and MARI Oceans

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