On February 10, 2015, the Low Carbon Transition in Energy Efficiency Project (LCEE) in collaboration with the Kim Lan Communal People's Committee, Hanoi, organized a seminar in Green Investment Facility. Among the attendants were representatives of the Association of Kim Lan Pottery & Ceramics, representatives of banks located in the area, officials from Hanoi Energy Conservation Center (Hanoi ECC), large business owners and heads of household producers.

At the seminar, Mr. Jakob Jespersen, the project leading consultant shared his viewpoints and listened to the comments on the constraints confronted by ceramic enterprises in Kim Lan. Especially, the discussion focused on the difficulties in lacking of capital and technology for transformation from traditional coal  firing kiln to gas-fueled kiln.

Mr. Reddy Amanarth, Senior Advisor of the project introduced the Green Investment Facility (GIF) of LCEE. With VND110 billion in funds from the Government of Denmark, GIF would not provide direct loans. Instead, it would support businesses through bank guarantees and incentives payments.

Accordingly, businesses could receive a payout of up to 30% of the loan value if they could save energy and reduce CO₂ emissions by 50%. To get the loans directly from the project partner banks, enterprises need to meet the following criteria: having less than 300 employees, with specific objectives for energy savings, CO2 emissions reduction, and they should apply for a loan of at least VND400 million.

Participating in the project, enterprises should identify the benefits from project support, as well as the cost of investment. The enterprise should also assess its capacity and the ability to transform from the traditional coal firing kiln to the gas-fueled kiln.

Throughout the workshop, questions from businesses were mostly related to the financial mechanism and technical assistance, and they were lucidly and clearly answered. At the end of the seminar, attendants were assisted to complete a loan application form from the financial mechanism of the project.

Mr. Pham Dinh Nguyen - a producer in Kim Lan said: "Building the coal firing kiln was hard and hazardous to the workers' health and to the environment. Using the gas fueled kiln, the production would be cleaner, faster, and more flexible in switching from one product to another. The effectiveness of a single batch is high and the risk is low. However, the biggest barrier for transformation resides with the loan capital. Therefore, the technical and financial support from LCEE project is needed to help businesses stay afloat."

After completion of the of Business Profile Review, enterprises which fully meet the criteria for approval will be appraised by the project experts for Project pre-feasibility to identify the economic and technical proposals. Then, the enterprises will get  bank loans and credit guarantees.

By Do Trong Tan