Bangkok, Siam Commercial Bank announced its readiness to transform its hotel and service business customers, with a loan portfolio of over 134 billion baht, into environmentally friendly hotels (Green Hotels) to support future tourism trends, offering a loan program for sustainability and efficiency enhancement. Mr. Kris Chantanotok, Chief Executive Officer, Siam Commercial Bank, said that he is ready to drive the Thai business sector towards sustainability in line with the Bank of Thailand's policy. He joined the event 'Financing the Transition: Finance for Business Sector Adaptation to Sustainability' and shared his vision on sustainability, focusing on the tourism and service businesses, which are the main engines of the Thai economy. Currently, Siam Commercial Bank is the leader in supporting the hotel industry the most in Thailand, with a total outstanding loan portfolio of over 134 billion baht. It has also developed an operational plan to help the bank's customers in this business portfolio to transf orm their businesses into Green Hotels in the entire process to elevate them to sustainable organizations. At present, the Thai economy is still recovering fragilely, with only the tourism sector being the driving force for continuous growth for the country. It remains a major force for the Thai economy, with tourism income accounting for more than 18% of GDP and employment accounting for more than 20%. The current challenge for the tourism sector is to develop sustainable tourism to be a reality, because from now on, tourists will look for alternative tourism that is more socially constructive and environmentally friendly. However, hotels are a business that significantly emits greenhouse gases from various activities, which affects global warming. This business must therefore urgently adapt. The bank will support investment in activities related to energy conservation or environmental and social friendliness, and invest in technology to increase efficiency and manage costs, which are activities that help r educe energy use and carbon emissions. Plan to lead hotel business operators to become environmentally friendly hotels (Green Hotel) through 3 important approaches: supporting sustainable finance for hotel customers at all levels, creating awareness and providing knowledge about sustainability, and collaborating with partners who specialize in Green Building, Carbon Measurement to provide advice and solutions to customers. Siam Commercial Bank has set a Net Zero 2050 target from providing loans and investments, supporting sustainable finance of 150,000 million baht within 2023-2025, and is operating seriously through the creation of innovations and financial solutions. Source: Thai News Agency