"In fact, for these new sustainable economies, the emergence of the new crown pneumonia epidemic is more of an opportunity for social enterprises than a crisis."
Bai Hong, secretary general of the Social Value Investment Alliance, told Forbes China: "Originally, we only considered the individual micro level, but in fact, the epidemic directly pulled us to the macro-economic environment and the future. After all, when we think about the micro, we can't do without the macro, and when we think about the present, we can't do without the past and the future. Under the epidemic, we have found that social enterprises are much more resilient than ordinary start-ups. This discovery actually surprised us very much. ”
Bai Hong, Secretary General of the Social Value Investment Alliance. Image source: dr
Forbes China: What social challenges has the epidemic brought to the market this year, and how will social enterprises respond?
Bai Hong: Let's first clarify the concept of social enterprise and sustainable development of the new economy. The so-called "new economy for sustainable development" actually has the form of a commercial organization, which is a commercial means, but it also creates a comprehensive value of economy, society and environment, and creates a comprehensive value of a measurable economic and social environment. We feel that institutions like this, which should all be called the new economy of sustainable development.
To further talk about it is to say that the characteristics and commercial attributes of the social environment issues of this type of enterprise are very distinct, and at the same time have three major characteristics: first, it is a rigid demand, the second is a large number of users, and the third common point is a huge supply depression.
If we look back at the present in the future, we will find that the new crown epidemic is actually a turning point in changing human cognition, in fact, it provides a very good ecological environment upgrade for enterprises that develop the new economy, and helps sustainable development of new economy enterprises to return to the positive cycle from the original ecological environment reverse choice, that is, to return to the positive cycle of enterprises accumulating more and more money. It can be said that this is a major positive.
Under this kind of risk strike, generally speaking, the enterprises of the new economy of sustainable development have relatively weak anti-risk ability, which I think is also a major blow to them.
Forbes China: What are the biggest obstacles facing social enterprises right now? What are the strategies of social enterprises themselves and the government?
Bai Hong: Social enterprises have survived the disaster, and some of them have not only survived, but have developed very well. Why is that? I think the first thing is that the original intention of this group of entrepreneurs is to do both righteousness and profit, and to create an enterprise that can solve the problems of the social environment. So, when a real social, public health event or force majeure comes, their first reaction is actually to fight, not to flee, and it will produce a powerful force in times of crisis.
Moreover, in the case of major health and safety incidents or force majeure events, the normal resource allocation and economic circulation mechanism have been disrupted, which is conducive to social enterprises to find many new demand markets.
Compared with market enterprises, in fact, in the real crisis, the strong sense of altruism and responsibility of social enterprise leaders has become the productivity of enterprises, and the productive forces have directly solved the just needs and pain points of society.
Forbes China: Given the slowdown in economic growth, is it difficult for China to finance social enterprises?
Bai Hong: For social enterprises, in fact, there are more direct financing and hybrid financing.
In this case, where is the money going? Is it going to the stock market or to the housing market, or to sustainable development, to the real economy? This is actually an option.
I think that from the government's policy guidance to the needs of social enterprises themselves, it should actually be positive, but the problem of difficult and expensive financing in the middle has not been alleviated.
The reason is that there is a market-oriented mechanism or operating mechanism in the middle.
The current reality is that the two ends are very hungry and urgent, but there is a lack of suitable operating mechanism in the middle. The work that the IUC is doing now is actually building such a mechanism. Including the evaluation tools we developed and the application of the evaluation tools that drive them, etc., all of this is building an intermediate working mechanism.
This year, in fact, we are seeing that the so-called impact investment or ESG investment and sustainable investment in China have commonalities, and they are all paying attention to the comprehensive effects of economy, society and environment, especially the quantitative value of the social environment. The year after tomorrow should be a year of greater leapfrog development.
In fact, since 2017, the Social Investment Alliance has first redefined the industry. Under the redefinition, we will see a huge sustainable new economic market.
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