Britain to privatise its 'green' bank

[LONDON] Britain's Conservative government on Thursday said it planned to privatise its 'green' investment bank set up three years ago to financially support environmentally-friendly infrastructure.

Finance minister George Osborne said the money raised from selling shares in the bank would be used to reduce the country's national debt.

"In 2012 we set up the Green Investment Bank (GIB) to support important investment in the UK's green infrastructure and since then it's gone from strength to strength," Chancellor of the Exchequer Osborne said in a statement.

"That is why we can now begin exploring options for moving the bank into the private sector to enable it to access larger pools of capital and act more freely to invest in a broad range of green sectors.

"We want the Green Investment Bank to attract more investment and we will use the money we raise to pay down the national debt and deliver lasting economic security for working people." According to the government, GIB has committed £2.0 billion (S$4.16 billion), helping to finance 50 projects including waste management technologies and offshore wind power.

AFP