The International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation expanded the global reach of the International Sustainability Standards Board by opening an office in Beijing.
The IFRS Foundation had originally announced plans to create a Beijing office when it first announced the creation of the ISSB in November 2021 during the United Nations COP26 climate change conference. The ISSB also has offices in Montreal, San Francisco, Frankfurt, London and Tokyo.
The opening Monday of the China office comes after the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the IFRS Foundation and the Ministry of Finance of China last December.
The Beijing office will work with the IFRS Foundation's other offices to support the ISSB's work, with staff focusing on leading and executing the ISSB's strategy for emerging and developing economies, acting as a hub for stakeholder engagement in Asia, facilitating deeper cooperation and engagement with stakeholders, and undertaking capacity building activities for emerging economies, developing countries and SMEs. The office will serve as the base for ISSB member Bing Leng.
ISSB vice-chair Jingdong Hua, who is responsible for overseeing the ISSB's capacity building and engagement across developing and emerging economies, will regularly visit the office.
The move comes as the ISSB is expected to finalize its draft standards on sustainability and climate-related disclosures during the final week of June.
The office will host the first meeting of the ISSB in China during the week starting Nov. 13, 2023. In conjunction with that meeting, on Nov. 17, the IFRS Foundation will work with local partners to co-host its first sustainability-focused conference in China. The IFRS Foundation plans to provide further information about the conference as it becomes available.
The office will be run by Zhengwei Zhang, who has been appointed as Beijing office director and special advisor to ISSB chair Emmanuel Faber. He has most recently served as Director-General at the Ministry of Finance of China. He has more than 20 years of leadership experience in international economic and financial cooperation, covering sustainable development, financial stability and regional economic cooperation and integration. He also has extensive experience in development finance, having worked for the Asian Development Bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and other investment institutions. Mr. Zhang is a qualified accountant.
'We are delighted to work with our Chinese partners to open an office in Beijing. China, as the world's second largest economy and a major component in global supply chains, is an important jurisdiction in enabling the ISSB's delivery of a global baseline of sustainability disclosures to meet the information needs of investors," said IFRS Foundation chair Erkki Liikanen in a statement Monday.
The ISSB has been regularly engaging with the Ministry of Finance of China via the Jurisdictional Working Group. Through the Ministry of Finance's Accounting Regulatory Department, China is also represented on the Sustainability Standards Advisory Forum, an advisory body to the ISSB.
'China is fully committed to supporting the work of the ISSB and the development of global sustainability disclosure standards," said Zhongming Zhu, vice minister of finance of China in a statement. "We are excited to welcome the IFRS Foundation and the ISSB to Beijing and look forward to supporting the development of the office into a hub for engagement, cooperation, capacity building and innovation.'
Beijing's municipal government will be cooperating with the Ministry of Finance of China to provide support for the IFRS Foundation Beijing office operation in accordance with the previous commitments, according to vice mayor Linmao Xia, and will actively support promotion and application of the IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards, and cooperate with the IFRS Foundation's Beijing office.
