A delegation representing 15 Finnish enterprises said here on Tuesday they wanted to look for local partners to develop renewable energy, wastewater treatment, industrial waste management and other environmental technologies.

Some of the Finnish companies introduced their clean technologies at a seminar held here on Tuesday were Neste Oil Corporation, Cargotec, GD Power, Kemira, Fincumet, YIT and Outotec.

Do Duy Phi (L), president and CEO of Vietnam National Chemical Group, with Tomas Forsgard, vice president of Kemira Company from Finland, at the signing of a memorandum of understanding for developing new chemicals to treat industrial wastewater in Vietnam

“We identify Vietnam as a key market in Southeast Asia and want to have direct partners in developing our innovative clean technologies to address Vietnam’s energy and environmental challenges,” said Santtu Hulkkonen, executive director of Cleantech Finland who represented the Finnish delegation.

He told the seminar that the clean-tech sector in Finland included some 2,000 enterprises operating in energy efficiency, clean industrial processes, renewable energy, and waste management and treatment.

Janne Mielck, vice president of the New Ventures of the Neste Oil Corporation, told the Daily on the sidelines of the seminar that his corporation was seeking suppliers from Vietnam for producing environmentally friendly diesel.

Neste Oil is a refining and marketing corporation specializing in low-emission technologies, especially high-quality oil products for vehicles. 

“By the end of this year, we will open a plant producing renewable diesels in Singapore with an annual capacity of 800,000 tons, so we are here to seek partners for supplying raw materials such as vegetable oil and non-edible oil for our plant in Singapore,” said Janne Mielck. He added his company expected to buy some 100,000 tons per year from Vietnam.

Huynh Kim Tuoc, director of the HCMC Energy Conservation Center, told the seminar that “Vietnam targets renewable energy to account for 7% of the total energy  supply by 2020 and up to 11% by 2050 compared to less than 3% now.”

“While the hydropower source as an important renewable energy of the country has been fully tapped, Vietnam should urgently exploit other renewable sources such as wind power, solar power, and other bio-fuels,” he said.

Tuoc added that Finnish enterprises with good technologies could definitely find a lot of opportunities to develop projects of solar energy around the country.

Besides, Tuoc also encouraged Finnish enterprises to invest in wind power projects, including the manufacturing of equipment for wind power plants.

According to the city’s energy conservation center, it has become very urgent for Vietnam to develop renewable energy as power shortage is a big worry for all economic sectors.

By Van Nam