Dr. Phuong Hoang Kim, Director of the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Energy Efficiency and Sustainable Development Department

What are your assessments of the initial achievements of the program, approved by a prime ministerial directive, which went into effect in 2020?

The prime minister assigned the Ministry of Industry and Trade to preside over implementation of the 2019-2030 national program for energy efficiency. The ministry proposed that the government allow the establishment of a steering committee for the program’s implementation and issuance of operational regulations.

Despite difficulties and challenges caused by the Covdid-19 pandemic, almost all localities issued plans in 2020 and 2021 for the program’s implementation. Fifty-four centrally-governed provinces and cities have plans to realize Prime Ministerial Instruction No. 20 on power efficiency in the 2020-2025 period and/or promulgated guiding documents on power efficiency.

Energy efficient product labeling activities continue to be promoted and maintained for household and office appliances, and products in the fields of trade, industry and transportation. The ministry presided over the development of a roadmap for applying energy efficiency standards to a number of energy intensive products such as water heaters, table computers and induction cookers, and prepared and published national standards on energy efficiency.

Central authorities promoted energy efficiency stimulation activities including Earth Hour events, seminars and training activities to improve public awareness of energy efficiency.

How do international organizations support the program?

While the annual state budget allocated to the program remains limited, international organizations’ timely participation in the program is very important. The Ministry of Industry and Trade has implemented and promoted international cooperation in the field of energy efficiency, including large-scale programs and projects – the 142-million-euro EU-Vietnam Sustainable Energy Transition Program, and cooperation projects with the World Bank (including a US$101.7 million energy efficiency project for Vietnam's industrial sector, and a US$11.3 million project to promote energy efficiency in Vietnamese industries). The ministry worked with Dennis partners, the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), among other foreign partners, to realize energy efficiency projects consistently and efficiently.

It is important to strengthen energy efficiency promotion

What solutions are necessary to make the program successful?

First, energy efficiency promotion policies must be improved further; legal documents on energy efficiency must be reviewed, amended, supplemented and systematized. Energy efficiency should be made part of localities’ annual and periodic economic development plans, and the capacity of ministries, sectors and localities to monitor and enforce legal regulations on energy efficiency requires improvement.

Second, it is important to improve the management performance and knowledge of energy efficiency officials and make energy efficiency promotion part of the Communist Party’s and state's information agenda.

Third, it is necessary to build and put into speedy operation an energy efficiency fund, and make energy efficiency part of scientific and technological programs at national, ministerial, provincial and city levels.

According to data provided by 17 provinces/cities, energy saved in 2021 totaled 284.1kTOE. The capital Hanoi took the lead with energy savings of 122.4 kTOE, followed by the country’s southern hub – Ho Chi Minh City, and Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Dong Thap, Gia Lai, Long An, Bac Lieu, and Ben Tre provinces.