On 27 November 2012, the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam (MOIT) officially launched the Energy Efficiency Campaign, which will be implemented in a the three-year period of 2012 – 2015, with a view to making significant changes to energy usage efficiency in industries and State Administration organisations and thereby reducing total power consumption of energy nationwide in such the period.
The Law on Economic and Effective Use of Energy was passed by the National Assembly and took effect from 1 January 2011. All the organizations, households and individuals in Vietnam are subjects of application of to this law. In October 2012, the Government of Vietnam approved the 2012 – 2015 National Target Programme for Energy Efficiency and Conservation under Decision 1427/QD-TTg with a view to saving 5-8 percentage of national energy consumption during 2012-1015, equivalent to 11-17 million TOE against the energy demand forecast in the national electricity development plan for the period of 2011 – 2020, with consideration of to 2030.
With technical assistance from the Embassy of Denmark Embassy and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the campaign will aim at improving awareness of and supporting enterprises with major consumption of energy in implementing action of the Law on Economic and Effective Use of Energy.
“The MOIT considers this campaign one of the core activities of the National Target Programme since it paves the way for the target of establishing a green economy of Vietnam,” affirmed Mr Tran Tuan Anh, Deputy Minister of MOIT.
Within the frame of the programme, a series of media activities towards enterprises will be conducted in order to improve awareness of the benefits brought by effective energy use, such as reduction of production cost, enhanced competitiveness enhancement and improvement of enterprises’ reputation and image. The campaign will establish hot lines and a website in which legal regulations on effective usage of energy, solutions to effective energy consumption and financial assistance programmes are posted.
“More and more enterprises get have come to understand that effective energy consumption and cleaner production not only generates economic benefits, but also helps to lessen environmental impacts and enhance reputation on the market,” stated Mr Simon Andrews, IFC Regional Manager for Vietnam, Cambodia, Lao PDR and Thailand. “In addition to enhancing the awareness of domestic banks like Techcombank and VietinBank, IFC sponsors effective energy use projects so as to accelerate the modernisation process of enterprises and direct the economy towards a growth path of low carbon emissions.”
According to statistics of the MOIT, Vietnam currently has some 1,200 energy-intensive enterprises which consume over 1,000 TOE per annum. These enterprises account for 70-80 percentage of national energy consumption, many of which have much higher energy consumption per unit of product much higher than that in developed countries and some regional nations. In the early period of 2012-2013, the campaign will focus on the four industrial productions of sectors of cement, steel, paper and chemicals, which are energy-intensive industries.
For State Administration organizations, the campaign will assist to improve capacity for Youth Union Branches so that their organisations can develop communication plans, and encourage economic and effective use of energy of by each official.
TLM
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