CommonWealth Magazine | APSIS 2021: Impact investment comes of age
The 2021 Asia Pacific Social Innovation Summit is taking place April 10-11 at the Hilton Taipei Sinban Hotel. Themed “Invest Asia: Building A Sustainable Resilient Future,” the event is a must for those looking to learn more about how social innovation-minded firms implement the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals while exploring opportunities for local and regional investment.
Investment anchors the theme as it links back to the SDGs set by the U.N. in 2015. A clear consensus was reached at the time:
Human beings ought not and will not pursue short-term gains at the expense of long-term benefits.
There are many ways to promote sustainability, and many social innovation organizations with a strong sense of commitment have already created various innovative and practical solutions. The greatest challenge, however, lies in how to sustain the solutions. Impact investment – with its focus on sustainable development – is one of the ways in which social innovation organizations can keep contributing.
Impact investment aims to generate positive influence and financial gains by investing funds in a specific environmental or social mission.
This may take the form of various asset classes, ranging from stocks to bonds and others. The crucial point is the requirement to generate financial gains, or at least to recoup the investment. This is the key difference between impact investment and traditional charitable donations.
According to a social investment report by the Asian Venture Philanthropy Network in 2019, awareness of social innovation and commitment in Taiwan is continuously improving. Advantages such as widespread digital infrastructure, mature human capital, and good donation habits make Taiwan a potential-laden market for impact investment.
Taiwan’s Social Enterprise Revolving Trust is a noteworthy case. In 2015, private individuals in Taiwan initiated SERT to assist the development of social innovation organizations through specific investments and network connections. As of 2020, more than NT$13 million (US$455,727) has been invested, benefiting a total of 19 social innovation organizations. These include One-Forty, dedicated to assisting Southeast Asian migrants and workers self-cultivate, and Social Enterprise Insights, the largest social enterprise media in the ethnic Chinese world.
Over the past few years, Taiwan’s government has continuously worked to make the social innovation ecosystem more comprehensive, thereby expanding the foundation for impact investment. In 2018, the Social Innovation Action Plan was launched to better coordinate the efforts of various government agencies. This provided the most complete support for social innovation organizations through policy linkage in aspects like international connections, regulatory reform and value-adding.