World Bank Affirms to Help Vietnam Boost Transparency in Power Industry

Vietnam should issue more policies that aims to boost the transparency in power industry to draw more investment in power projects and the World Bank (WB) would support the process, Achim Fock, the WB Acting Country Director to Vietnam, said at a conference in Hanoi earlier this week. Under the WB’ support, representatives of consulting companies have introduced capacity allocation mechanism (CAM) and its regulations and application to help Vietnam better run competitive power markets. Addressing the event, Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Hoang Quoc Vuong said that competitive markets will utilize the transparency and foreign investors will feel some positive outlook in Vietnam’s power market. He said that the country invested roughly $5-$7 billion in the power industry annually to meet the demand growth rate of more than 10%/year. Vietnam’s power industry has received financial support from a number of foreign organizations namely the WB, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), and the German Reconstruction Bank (KfW). (Baocongthuong.com.vn April 19)