Denmark and Vietnam have a long-term cooperation in the field of climate change response and energy. Many projects have been rolled out by the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade  with the Danish Embassy; Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Danish Ministry of Climate, Energy and Building.

To get a better understanding about this collaboration, as well as the achievements, the Webpage: tietkiemnangluong.com.vn had an interview with Mr. Trinh Quoc Vu, Director of the Department of Science, Technology and Energy Efficiency, General Department of Energy, Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Vietnam and Denmark have a lot of cooperation on climate change adaptation. Could you tell me more about the cooperation between the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam and the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in this field?

The Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam and the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs have implemented the cooperation programs for many years. Since 2008, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Denmark has implemented the project Adaptation and Mitigation in response to  climate change, to assist Vietnam in coping with the apparent climate change.

In that program, the Ministry of Industry and Trade gets involved in the implementation of the second component: climate change mitigation. Under this component, the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has supported the budget for the Ministry of Industry and Trade to implement the National Target Program on economical and efficient use of energy.

In this component, the Danish side has also supported the Ministry of Industry and Trade to set up the policy framework to promote actively the economical and efficient use of energy. The Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs helped Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs build standard curriculum for training of energy auditors and energy managers in key energy consuming businesses. Currently, we are applying this standard  curriculum for training within the scope of the national target program of economical and efficient use of energy.

As known, in addition to cooperation with the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam is also working with the Danish Ministry of Climate, Energy and Building. Could you provide us more details about ​​this collaboration?

Well, the Danish Ministry of Climate, Energy and Building has supported the Ministry of Industry and Trade. and the Ministry of Construction to deploy the Low Carbon Transition in Energy Efficiency Project (LCEE Project). In the Project, the Ministry of Industry and Trade implements the component called Promoting energy saving in small and medium-sized enterprises, focusing on three sectors : bricks & tiles, ceramics and food processing.

This project started in 2013 and is expected to end in 2017. In this project, in addition to budget support for National Target Program on economical and efficient use of energy, the  project also established the Green Investment Facility, with the aims to help small and medium enterprises invest in solutions to energy saving.

The total fund is VND110 billion, which is expected to be released to loans, to support small and medium enterprises to realize their energy saving projects from July 2015. In addition, this project also helps the Ministry of Industry and Trade set up technical assistance to evaluate energy efficiency in SMEs in Vietnam, as well as programs in capacity building for those businesses.

Apart form those activities, the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Danish Ministry of Climate, Energy and Building signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on cooperation between the two ministries in the field of energy. The MOU will focus on support for Vietnam to develop sustainable energy, renewable energy and economical and efficient use of energy.

So the cooperation between the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam and the Danish Ministry of Climate, Energy and Building has brought efficiency and meanings, then what are they  sir?

We always uphold the effectiveness of cooperation with development agencies in general and the Government of Denmark, the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Danish Ministry of Climate, Energy and Building in particular.

Specifically, for the Low Carbon Transition in Energy Efficiency Project (LCEE Project) in the area of energy saving, through the fund to support SMEs, we work together with the Danish Ministry of Climate, Energy and Building to create an effective financial tool to promote investment projects on solutions to energy saving and efficiency for enterprises.

This project facilitates the businesses to access loans through a bank guarantee of 50% of the total value and a mechanism for reward up to 30% of the loan value granted to any successful projects which would achieve energy efficiency as in the commitments.

Trong Tan