Opportunities are tied to challenges

At the Dialogue on Energy Transition in Vietnam within the framework of the 26th United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26) recently, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Dang Hoang An said that Vietnam is facing many opportunities but also faces many difficulties and challenges in ensuring energy security, green and sustainable development.

Accordingly, the restructuring of the electricity and energy sectors is drastically directed along with promoting restructuring and improving the efficiency of state enterprises, continuing to equitize and divest state capital of electricity generation units, building the electricity market according to the approved roadmap, perfecting the competitive electricity generation market, launching the competitive wholesale electricity market, preparing for the competitive retail market after the year 2022. In addition, Vietnam is continuing to implement the national program of economical and efficient use of energy, phase 3.

However, energy transition is not only a problem within the energy sector, but important is to transform the economy from an energy intensive model to an energy efficient one.

Recognizing this problem, Mr. Gareth Ward - UK Ambassador to Vietnam said that Vietnam is a dynamic economy with a lot of potential for renewable energy, if greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets can be achieved.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the demand for electricity and energy will continue to grow high along with the process of industrialization and modernization of the economy in the coming years. Therefore, building a feasible, sustainable energy sector development strategy in accordance with the actual conditions is becoming the most important task of Vietnam.