March 16, 2023 – The 7th Viet Nam Energy Partnership Group (VEPG) Steering Committee meeting took place in Hanoi. The meeting was chaired by Mr. Dang Hoang An – Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, Mr. Giorgio Aliberti – Ambassador of the European Union to Vietnam, and Ms. Carolyn Turk – Country Director of the World Bank in Vietnam. Participating in the meeting were representatives from Departments and agencies under the Ministry of Industry and Trade and Development Partners who are respectively Chairs and Co-chairs of Technical Working Groups under VPEG.

The 7th meeting of the VEPG Steering Committee discussed the report on activities of the VEPG Secretariat and Technical Working Groups in 2022, adopted the 2023 Work Plan and the Master Work Plan of the VEPG. VEPG period 2023 – 2027. Finally, the Steering Committee together with units and organizations discussed and approved the preparation plan for the 5th VEPG Summit which will take place in 2023.

Mr. Dang Hoang An, Vice Minister of Industry and Trade, Chairman of the meeting said: “I am very pleased to see that the Technical Working Groups of VEPG in 2022 have successfully completed their tasks and achieved some of the best results. despite many difficulties from the establishment of new Technical Working Groups, new co-chairs and the transfer of the VEPG Secretariat. This demonstrates the efforts of the units under the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the active cooperation spirit of the Development Partners who are attending today’s meeting. I also acknowledge and appreciate the support and efforts of the VEPG Secretariat in supporting the Technical Working Groups and reporting the results to the Steering Committee. I hope that today’s meeting will give appropriate and timely strategic guidelines for VEPG’s activities in the near future to ensure the effectiveness and usefulness of VEPG.”

Mr. Giorgio Aliberti – Ambassador of the European Union to Vietnam said: “In 2022, the VEPG has made adjustments to the reference framework and the VEPG Secretariat had a good transition from GIZ to the project EU – Viet Nam Sustainable Energy Transition Facility. The EU highly welcomes and congratulates Vietnam’s determination to promote and identify international commitments on climate change. Vietnam is one of the countries affected by climate change and has a fast-growing economy, so Vietnam’s commitments at COP26 are very welcome. However, energy transition and net-zero emissions are never easy for any country, requiring the cooperation of countries to learn and share lessons learned from each country. other countries. In the coming period, the EU has supported EUR 142 million through the EU – Viet Nam Sustainable Energy Transition Programme (SETP) including a budget support component worth EUR 121 million and four complementary support measures worth EUR 21 million. These supports aim to improve energy efficiency; increase a larger share of renewable energy in the energy mix and improve the performance of the Vietnam Energy Information System (VEIS). This is also a strong commitment of the EU to continue supporting Vietnam in its sustainable energy transition roadmap and supporting Vietnam’s declaration at COP26.”

Ms Carolyn Turk – Country Director of World Bank in Vietnam added: “Vietnam’s commitment at COP26 as well as its recent political statement on JETP with ambitious goals, and the World Bank. As a Development Partner, we stand ready to assist the Government of Vietnam in transforming this vision into actionable programmes. During the 7th Steering Committee meeting, issues that could be discussed included challenges in accessing ODA and climate finance, regulatory frameworks for renewable energy, ancillary services , and gas (which is lacking), and coordinate Development Partners to achieve targets by 2023 and 2050.”

The year 2023 will be a challenging year for Vietnam’s energy sector following the political declaration of the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) at the end of 2022, so the VEPG needs to maximize its role as an energy policy forum. It is necessary to take drastic and practical actions to help Vietnam move closer to the goal of equitable energy transition. Accordingly, the VEPG Steering Committee has emphasized the important and urgent contents for the VEPG, including:

• Maintain 02 meetings/year for the Technical Working Groups and at least 02 times/year for the Steering Committee. Enhance the coordination and reporting role of the VEPG Secretariat;
• Enhance the participation of relevant Ministries, Sectors and non-state entities such as private enterprises;
• Technical Working Groups need to focus on in-depth research discussions on a number of specific and urgent topics to come up with practical solutions and recommendations.
• Research and conduct coordination sessions between Development Partners and donors within the framework of Technical Working Groups;
• Develop more dialogue models combined with field visits to enhance the effectiveness of VEPG to localities and assist in solving problems for projects that have not yet been operated.

Vice Minister Dang Hoang An hoped that with Vietnam’s political declaration on JETP by the end of 2022, the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Development Partners would accompany more strongly to achieve the common and core goals of the VEPG that is acting as a high-level policy forum and enduring supports between the Government of Vietnam, Development Partners and energy stakeholders.

On this occasion, VM An also expressed his thanks to the European Union for providing financial and technical support to Vietnam and the World Bank for always accompanying the Ministry of Industry and Trade in clean energy development programs for Vietnam.