Policy and Operation Director of the Ocean Energy Europe Association (EOE) Remi Gruet said with over 3,000 kilometres of coastline, Vietnam has significant potential to exploit ocean energy towards developing inshore area economies.

The expert made the assessment in an interview granted to the Belgium-based Vietnam News Agency correspondents on the sidelines of the third Ocean Energy Forum, which was held by the European Committee (EC) in Brussels on April 16.

The event is a part of activities to prepare European Union (EU) contributions to the International Conference on Climate Change, to be held in Paris, France in late 2015.

Gruet said green energy in general and ocean energy in particular is playing an increasingly important to European countries.

The forum discussed issues in licensing, developing technology and resources for ocean energy, which is considered by the EC as one of five focus development areas for a “green economy”, creating more jobs in coastal areas.

Additionally, the ocean energy sector would help the EU fortify its energy security and reduce dependence on fossil fuels used in electrical production. The EU spends an average of 500 billion EUR (540 billion USD) on fossil fuel energy each year.-VNA