The Future of Investing in Green

Shih-Fang Lo and Julia Yang

Introduction

     There is a profit side and a responsible side to any business, and the two factors have to be balanced. With the threat of global warming and environmental deterioration, the government policy on environmental protection remains active from the last century worldwide.  Business will face more strict restrictions on energy uses and business process in the natural resources constrained society.  Governments’ environmental and energy policies are stimulating grand new industries, such as energy efficiency industry, new and renewable energy industry, and new services. The policy trends have not only created green new industry, but also brought growing green investment opportunity.  This article therefore aims to investigate what’s been happening in green finance and its prospect.

Green Finance Starts from Corporate Responsibility

     Recent financial scandals such as subprime mortgage crisis have emphasized the need for greater transparency and accountability.  A more humane, ethical, and transparent way of doing business is therefore broadly discussed. Take the term ‘corporate responsibility’ for example, the classical view from the shareholder approach is that the social responsibility of a business is to increase its profits and value for its owner.  However, the stakeholder approach points out that business is not only accountable to its shareholders, but should also consider stakeholder interests which may affect or may be affected by the operations or objectives of a business. It is gradually extended to ‘corporate sustainability’ defined as a business approach that creates long-term shareholder value by embracing opportunities and managing risk from three dimensions:  economic, environmental, and social dimensions. A sustainable company is one whose characteristics and actions are designed to lead to a ‘sustainable future state,’ such as value creation, environmental management, and human capital management, etc.

“New Southward” Is Another Political Slogan or Is a Comprehensive Strategy?

Jack Huang

     ASEAN Economic Community, also known as AEC, was officially announced by the end of 2015. Most people consider it as a milestone of regional integration in Southeast Asia and it seems that the prosperous growth in near decades between member states is foreseen. In this prediction, the foreign direct investments (FDI), in terms of net inflow, intra and extra ASEAN, are increasing and therefore stimulate economic growth in the region. Furthermore, the closely cooperation of AEC also aims at creating single market and production base, achieving free flow of goods and services, reducing burdens of labour and capital movement. In a long term, it may follow up the course of European Union and many expects even assert that ASEAN will become the third-largest economy in Asia, and the sixth in the world.

Suggestions of Improving Taiwan’s Economic Relations with the US and China

Darson Chiu

     As the world’s largest economy, the size of US economy is at US$ 19.38 trillion or 24.4% of the world’s GDP. China is the second largest economy in the world, and its GDP will be standing at US$ 12.36 trillion or 15.5% of the world economy. The US provides the biggest market demand for end products, whereas China has been the largest exporting country since the year of 2010. As the US and China jointly represent around 40% of the global economy as well as the major demand side and major supply side, a potential economic conflict between these two giants will certainly cause tremendous impacts on the global economy and its supply value chains.

     The economy of Taiwan standing at nearly US$ 535.54 billion in 2017 has been an export oriented economy and deeply integrated into the global supply value chain. From such a perspective, the negative impact on Taiwan will be inevitable, if a potential trade war between the US and China takes place.