Vietnam Energy Summit 2020: Looking for specific mechanisms for energy development
Hanoi (VNA) – The energy sector has grown into a large-scale
industry with dynamic growth, but specific mechanisms are needed for the sector
to develop further, heard the Vietnam Energy Summit
2020 which opened in Hanoi on July 22.
Addressing the event, Politburo member and head of the Party Central
Committee’s Economic Commission Nguyen Van Binh said the energy sector in
general and the electricity industry in particular has undergone rapid and
uniform development in recent years, and basically completed set targets.
In 2019, the sector produced and imported 240.1 billion kWh of
electricity and the design capacity of the national power system was about
50,000 MW. Crude oil output stood at 13.1 million tonnes, gas 10.2 billion cu.m
and coal 44.9 million tonnes.
However, the sector has also revealed many shortcomings and weaknesses.
The national energy security goal is facing many challenges, with domestic
supply unable to meet demand, leading to increasing imports. Many power
projects have been behind schedule, and several indices of energy security are
changing in the negative direction.
The management and exploitation of energy resources showed limitations,
plus a low efficiency in energy use and asynchronous development of the
competitive energy market. The policy on energy pricing has not matched the
market mechanism.
Sharing this view, Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung affirmed that
Vietnam always pays special attention to energy development so as to ensure
national energy security, promote production development in the period of
industrialisation and modernization.
To
tackle the problems faced by the energy sector, the Government and the Prime
Minister are focusing their direction on several key tasks, the Deputy PM said.
The first of which is to complete mechanisms
for the sector’s development, with relevant ministries and branches required to
make amendments and supplements to the laws on electricity, oil and gas, and
the economical and efficient use of energy, as well as to draft a new law on
renewable energy. Ministries and branches are also tasked with revising and
building sub-law legal norms and documents for the effective enforcement of the
new laws.
The second task is to build development strategies for the energy sector
and the electricity and coal industries in 2021-2030 with a vision to 2045,
along with researching and building strategies for long-term energy imports and
environmental protection.
Deputy PM Dung added that the Government will assign relevant agencies
to build national master plans on the development of energy, electricity, and
infrastructure for the stockpile and supply of oil and gas. In particular, the
national electricity development master plan must be approved within 2020, Dung
said.
Regarding the transformation of the energy sector to market mechanism,
Deputy PM Dung said the power sector has operated in the form of a competitive
wholesale market since early 2019 and the adjustment of electricity retail
price has been made in accordance with the market mechanism under the control
of the State.
The PM has instructed the building of a project on developing a
competitive power market to 2030 with a vision to 2045, with the goal of
piloting the competitive power retail market in 2022 and launching the official
complete market in 2023, according to Dung. He added that a fully competitive
coal market will be launched in the period from 2026-2030.
Regarding the development of renewable energy, Minister of Industry and
Trade Tran Tuan Anh pointed to the fact that with the engagement of other
economic sectors, especially the private sector, Vietnam can achieve set
targets in a much shorter time than expectations.
The Vietnam Energy Summit 2020 was held to seek ways to implement the Politburo’s Resolution No.55-NQ/TW on orientations to national energy
development till 2030 with a vision to 2045, which was issued on February 11, 2020. The resolution is said to contain
new and breakthroughs contents on national energy development such as diversifying
energy sources, prioritizing renewable energy and gas-fueled power and
facilitating the private sector’s engagement in energy development./.