Enigin Update - Success for Viet Nam's Energy Saving Project
A PROJECT promoting energy saving to small-and medium-sized enterprises in Viet Nam has been hailed a success at a workshop this week in Hanoi.
Attendees at the international workshop were told that the success is due in no small measure to a strong commitment from all those involved and efficient project planning, according to a workshop held in the capital city yesterday.
The workshop was tasked with sharing the varied experiences the involved businesses had in implementing energy conservation and efficiency,
The $39-million project was launched in 2006 by Viet Nam’s Ministry of Science and Technology, UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) and Global Environmental Facility, helping over 500 businesses with 543 energy efficiency sub-projects across varied industries, including brick production, ceramics, paper mills, garments and food processing.
So far the project has helped the country to save 232,000 tonnes of oil and reduce CO2 emissions by more than 944,000 tonnes.
Vietnam Bridge report that Science and Technology deputy minister Tran Viet Thanh said the project had created favourable conditions for Vietnamese enterprises to access advanced technology and management experiences on energy conservation and efficiency, especially thanks to the $1.7 million Loan Guarantee Fund.
Businesses involved stated that their production costs had reduced by 10-50 percent, with productivity and product quality increasing by about 30 percent, helping to improve competitiveness. This lead to almost 100,000 jobs being created in the brick and ceramics sectors, based primarily in rural areas and trade villages.
Thanh admitted that Viet Nam has diverse energy resources but small reserves while energy use was still largely inefficient. "There is significant potential for large energy savings in both industry and at households," he said, adding that the country had been improving its legal framework to facilitate energy efficiency.
Project director Nguyen Ba Vinh wants to further the success and hence called for even more governmental support with policies for energy service companies in terms of legal procedures, finance and technology as well as a greater focus on training skilled workers and technicians for the sector.
Setsuko Yamazaki, UNDP Country Director said energy efficiency not only helped reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but also reduced energy costs for businesses.
Enigin Distributors are helping many SMEs to realise the benefits of improved energy efficiency and energy saving by introducing them to the range of solutions, systems and programmes from Enigin, providing ideal management, real-time monitoring and intelligent control over energy use.
Picture of Ho Chi Mihn City by Edwin Lee reproduced under CCL.
