Workshop discusses renewable energy development

HCMC – Experiences from developed countries have shown that renewable energy cannot be developed without a competitive electricity market in place, heard a workshop in Hanoi on Monday. Experts attended a workshop to make policy recommendations for boosting the development of renewable energy in a competitive power market, the Vietnam News Agency reports. Building a competitive power market is an important element of institutional reform, Nguyen Dinh Cung, head of the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM), told the event held by CIEM. Pham Duc Trung, deputy head of CIEM’s Committee for Enterprise Reform and Development, said producers of renewable energy should be entitled to preferential treatment in terms of tax, land use fee and access to credit. The domestic power market has not been made competitive while there are no independent agencies monitoring and regulating the market, making it unattractive to investors, he said. To spur competitiveness, Trung stressed the need to reform State utility Vietnam Electricity Group (EVN) and guarantee a level playing field for electricity producers and distributors. He suggested making the Electricity Regulatory Authority of Vietnam more independent, strengthening the capacity of the Vietnam Competition Authority at the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and applying a competitive pricing mechanism. Nguyen Van Vy, vice chairman of the Vietnam Energy Association (VEA), said the Government should adopt incentive investment policy for projects generating and using renewable energy, and give financial assistance to renewable energy research projects.

Source:The Saigon Times Daily