Vietnam Needs Strategy to Lure Investment in Energy Saving

Vietnam-an emerging market in Asia is now thirsty for power to maintain the set economic development targets-needs to create stronger encouragement and incentives for investors to support energy efficiency initiatives in the country, said an official of Industry Ministry.

 

Nguyen Dinh Hiep, Deputy Director General of Science and Technology Department under the Ministry of Industry (MoI) made the call at the national Consultative Meeting on Energy Efficiency Initiatives in Hanoi last week.

 

Addressing at the gathering, Energy Efficiency consultant Nguyen Thanh Hai said energy efficiency projects faced several barriers, including high initial investment costs, low household incomes, poor public awareness of the need to conserve energy and inappropriate policies.

 

Vietnam needs more concrete and long-term policies for the work, said Hai, adding that although a number of legal documents on energy efficiency had been introduced at central, ministry, and provincial levels, problems remained such as a lack of specific guidance and effective enforcement.

 

Hai asserted energy use in Vietnam could be reduced by 30 per cent with equipment retrofits, with a payback period of only three to five years, according to pilot audits conducted by the Ministry of Science and Technology.

 

Vietnam is embracing huge potential in developing renewable energy sources with its solar exposure being 2 to 2.5 times higher than that of Germany, a leading country in solar energy development, Hai said.

 

The meeting, co-organized by the MoI and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), highlighted the great potential of the Vietnamese energy efficiency market in fields such as lighting, industrial retrofitting and renewable energy.

 

Currently, the MoI is coordinating the National Targeted Program for Energy Efficiency and Conservation, overseeing its 11 components including policy, awareness, education, standards and labeling, energy efficiency and conservation in households, industries, enterprises, buildings and transport.

 

MoI was proposed as an ideal implementing agency for ADB’s Energy Efficiency Initiative in Vietnam, said Alexander Ablaza, Energy Efficiency Expert from ADB. (VNS)