On November 3rd, 2015, in Washington, DC, the Embassy of Vietnam in the United States in collaboration with the Business Association of Overseas Vietnamese - US foreign affiliates (BAOOVUS) organized a seminar "Vietnam-US Business Partnership for Energy Development".

Representatives of the Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Trade and Development Agency and US Trade (USTDA), agency Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), some research institutes with about 40 American businesses operating in the energy sector and 12 business representatives from Vietnam, including the PETROVIETNAM OIL CORPORATION (PV Oil) attended the workshop.

Speaking at the seminar, Ambassador of Vietnam in the United States, Pham Quang Vinh emphasized that the workshop was a forum for Vietnamese businesses to meet directly with the business support agency of the United States and US firms, and created opportunities for bilateral cooperation in the energy sector.

In the opinion of Ambassador Pham Quang Vinh, a partnership between Vietnam and the United States has been strongly growing, particularly in the energy sector. The US major energy corporations are operating very actively in Vietnam as ExxonMobil, Murphy Oil, General Electric, Westinghouse. The two governments, Vietnam and the United States, maintain good cooperation in issues related to sustainable energy and the environment in the framework of bilateral cooperation and multilateral mechanisms, such as APEC, EAS, Mekong sub-regional cooperation. Agencies of the US Government, such as Ustad, Ex-Im Bank, OPIC have supported financially in many energy projects in Vietnam.

According to Ambassador Pham Quang Vinh, the economy with more than 90 million consumers, with the average GDP growth rate of 6-7% /year, the energy consumption is increasing, Vietnam wants more American companies, partners, including small and medium enterprises from the United States, to support Vietnam to expand and modernize the energy infrastructure. Ambassador Pham Quang Vinh believes that once the TPP Agreement enters its enforcement, more favorable conditions will be created for the field of energy cooperation between the two countries.

Representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Energy, the US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) appreciate the potential for cooperation with Vietnam and emphasize that the cooperation in the energy sector is one of the priorities of US ties with Vietnam. US Department of Energy sees Vietnam as an important collaborative partner in bringing in the energy issues and sustainable development to international forum. USTDA revealed that it had funded 80 projects for infrastructure development and diversification of energy sources and improvement of power distribution in Vietnam.

In two discussion sessions on funding and technology solutions for energy development, the support agencies of the US government and enterprises of the two sides have shared the mechanisms and specific choices to raise funds for the development of energy projects, presented a number of new technologies in the field of tidal power (by Verdant Power company), energy savings in buildings (by Exy Box), the use intelligent battery systems for grid optimization (by Tumalow). The representatives from US agencies and US businesses stated that the workshop had provided an opportunity to increase understanding and connections between partners of Vietnam - US in this field.

Trong Tan