HSBC Vietnam Cooperates with Viettel in the Sustainable Data Centre Project

HSBC Bank (Vietnam) Ltd. (HSBC Vietnam) has made another milestone green financing deal by arranging a green loan for a Vietnamese state-owned enterprise. The recipient, Viettel IDC, a subsidiary of Viettel Group, the largest telecommunications group in Vietnam, will now have access to a loan facility that amounts to VND400 billion with a five-year term.

HSBC Vietnam’s green financing deal will support Viettel IDC’s procurement of equipment and machineries for the development of a sustainable data centre in Hanoi. High-quality and international standardised devices are required to optimise the data centre’s electricity consumption and realise the company’s goal to manage this data centre’s Power Usage Efficiency (PUE) more sustainably and go under the global industry average PUE figure of 1.5.

This green loan reaffirms HSBC’s leading position in providing sustainable financial solutions to businesses in Vietnam, further highlighting the bank’s strategy to expand its reach for sustainable financings across multiple sectors in the Vietnamese economy.

In order to receive this green financing, Viettel IDC completed HSBC’s stringent credit approval and management process for sustainable financing. The process is overseen by HSBC Asia Pacific Sustainable Loans Committee, a dedicated body of the bank with rich experience in successfully arranging green financing in different fields around the world.

The green facility must also meet the high standards listed under the international Green Loan Principles, jointly issued by Loan Market Association and Asia Pacific Loan Market Association, and which includes four core components: use of proceeds, project selection and evaluation, management of proceeds and reporting.

“Viettel and HSBC Vietnam have had long-term partnership that spans many years. This strategic relationship has now been further elevated with the new milestone that has been set with this green, a step that highlights how both organisations have a shared vision for sustainable development, carbon neutrality and helping Vietnam on its transition to net zero, said Tim Evans, CEO of HSBC Vietnam.

“We are very proud to support the largest telecommunications service provider in Vietnam as they transition their operations to becoming a greener business. This transaction not only highlights HSBC Vietnam’s commitment to help arrange up to US$12 billion of green financing for Vietnam, but also underlines HSBC’s ongoing mission to support the evolution and growth of Vietnam and Vietnamese companies. This is something that we have done since first established our operations here over 150 years ago.”

Data centres consume a great deal of energy and resources globally, and one that many organisations seek to cut back with the goal of reaching net-zero carbon emissions.

According to the International Energy Agency, data centres consume approximately 1% of global electricity demand, contributing to 0.3% of all global carbon dioxide emissions. In the Uptime Institute Global Data Center Survey 2021, which collected responses from over 800 owners and operators of data centres, around 80% and 70% respondents indicated that they track IT or data centre power consumption and Power Usage Efficiency for their corporate sustainability purposes.

The need to improve sustainability in data centre operations in particular and the digital infrastructure sector in general is undeniable, and will definitely contribute significantly in the fight against global warming for a better, greener world for future generations.