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Press Release
For Immediate Release

Sustainable investment hits Asia; Tessa Tennant launches web-based ASrIA to promote awareness in the region.

(Hong Kong - February 28, 2001) Today, ASrIA, the newly founded Association for Sustainable & Responsible Investment in Asia, launched its organisation and website - www.asria.org - to serve as a resource for building sustainable investment in Asia.

At a reception in Hong Kong, the founder and Chair of ASrIA, Tessa Tennant, said, "The time is right for this approach to investment to take hold in Asia. Anyone serious about sustaining wealth and health for this most populated region of the world cannot afford to ignore what Sustainable & Responsible Investment (SRI) has to offer."

She went on to say, "SRI is about the triple bottom line - it's about environmental protection, corporate democracy, and making money. And this is possible as existing funds are showing."

Among the early tasks ASrIA has identified is to encourage SRI options to be included in Hong Kong's Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF).

Tessa Tennant added, "There is a significant business opportunity here and we already have companies with SRI funds of around US $10 billion supporting us."

 

In the U.K. and United States, SRI has become an established investment sector with upwards of US$ 2.5 Trillion under SRI management.

SRI unit trusts and mutual funds have doubled in the last two years. In the U.S. they now equal 13% of all managed asset funds. They are financially viable options, and the Domini SRI index has outperformed the S&P 500 over three, five and ten year time horizons.

But SRI is not well understood in Asia, despite its potential to foster sustainable economic growth. Tessa Tennant pointed out that the Asian economic crisis illustrated that growth at all costs does not work. Sustainable economic development is the only option that will pay lasting dividends.

Internationally known in the field of SRI, and one of its pioneers, Tessa Tennant addressed U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair in December, giving the last of the Cherie Blair Millennial lectures in London on this subject.

ASrIA is a not-for-profit organisation established through the generous funding from a cross spectrum of organisations. They include the Network for Social Change, UK, Calvert Group, Friends Ivory & Sime, Henderson Investors, Morley Fund Management, the Methodist Central Finance Board, Domini Investment Management, Zurich Financial Services, Cooperative Insurance Services, Trillium, KLD, Walden, and Prudential Life Insurance HK.
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For further information, please contact:
Sweeta Motwani
Association for Sustainable & Responsible Investment in Asia (ASrIA)
Tel: 9332 7229
Fax: 2982 2798
Email: sweeta@asria.org