Recently, with the approval and guidance of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), the SAFE Shenzhen Branch officially launched the pilot program for green external debt business. On the first working day after the pilot kicked off, three Shenzhen-based enterprises completed the foreign exchange registration for green external debts at Bank of China Shenzhen Branch and China Merchants Bank Shenzhen Branch respectively, with a total signed amount exceeding RMB 170 million. This pilot has opened up a new path for Shenzhen enterprises to use cross-border financing to support the development of green industries.
To thoroughly implement the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, actively support the development of green finance, and encourage non-financial enterprises to use cross-border financing funds for green or low-carbon transition projects, SAFE decided to launch the first batch of green external debt business pilots. With the approval of SAFE, the SAFE Shenzhen Branch, as one of the first pilot branches, issued the Guidelines for Green External Debt Pilot Business in Shenzhen in November 2025, which has been implemented since December 6, 2025. According to the guidelines, under the macro-prudential management framework for full-caliber cross-border financing, the type risk conversion factor for external debt funds of non-financial enterprises specifically used for green or low-carbon transition projects will be reduced from 1 to 0.5. This significantly lowers the occupation of enterprises’ cross-border financing risk-weighted balances, effectively expands their external debt financing space, guides more overseas capital to flow into green sectors, and supports the green economic transition.
The SAFE Shenzhen Branch attaches great importance to the advancement of the green external debt pilot. It made early arrangements and took the initiative to provide services. When surveying market demand and learning about enterprises’ green financing needs, it promptly coordinated with banks to arrange dedicated personnel for docking. After the pilot was launched, it completed the relevant registration and account-opening procedures for enterprises, ensuring that funds efficiently and accurately reached green projects. Among them, Shenzhen Energy Group Co., Ltd. is a leading enterprise in the green transition of Shenzhen’s energy sector. Through the green external debt pilot, it will introduce valuable low-cost overseas funds for the construction and development of its ecological and environmental protection projects, strongly supporting the expansion and upgrading of its green core business. China International Marine Containers (Group) Co., Ltd. is a transnational industrial group in Shenzhen providing logistics equipment, energy equipment and related services. By participating in the pilot, the enterprise has secured low-cost overseas credit funds to support the manufacturing of clean energy FLNG vessels in its marine engineering segment, effectively meeting the operational funding needs of its member enterprises’ green projects and having far-reaching significance for the country’s efforts to promote the low-carbon and high-efficiency transformation of offshore oil and gas development.
In the next step, under the guidance of SAFE, the SAFE Shenzhen Branch will continue to deepen the reform and opening-up in the foreign exchange field, promote the effective implementation of green finance policies, do a good job in the “five key financial tasks”, encourage more banks and enterprises to participate in the pilot, broaden financing channels for green industries, and better serve the high-quality development of the real economy.
