The policy research forum held in Hanoi on March 15 (Photo: VNA)The event provided an occasion to review impactson cooperation in energy development and issues affecting the building ofsustainable energy policies in the GMS, thereby suggesting some policies topromote the two countries’ cooperation and their contributions to sustainableenergy development in the subregion.
Dr Tran Thi Hong Minh, Director of the CentralInstitute for Economic Management (CIEM), said the Vietnamese economy has beengrowing relatively fast, and economic growth is also among the importanttargets set by the Party and Government for the decade to come.
That will lead to huge demand for energy. Tosustainably meet this need, the country is considering the development ofdifferent energy sources, without relying on only fossil fuel or hydropower,she noted.
Vietnam has realised the importance ofsustainable energy development in the GMS and frequently and proactivelydiscussed this issue with other member countries, she said, highly valuing theactive participation and support from partners both inside and outside thesubregion.
In recent years, the cooperation among the GMScountries, comprising Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and China’sYunnan and Guangxi provinces, have increased substantially.
Together with the intensive integration in ASEANand ASEAN Plus, the GMS nations have also issued many initiatives and boostedties in numerous fields, from trade – investment to infrastructure development,energy, telecommunications, human resources development, and environmentalprotection, among which energy is an important area strongly linked with thecooperation and development in other sectors, according to Minh.
She held that although the GMS countries areforecast to need more energy in the next decade, it will be hard for them todevelop sustainably and effectively if their energy policies are builtseparately and inharmoniously.
They should enhance cooperation towards asustainable and harmonious energy policy at the regional level, the CIEM directorwent on.
Fukunari Kimuara from the Faculty of Economicsat Japan’s Keio University said the GMS is assessed as the most successfulsubregion with fast economic growth and poverty reduction over the last threedecades.
However, he noted, the development gap hereremains wide, and sustainable development-related issues like water resourcesmanagement and the environment have become urgent issues in the subregion.
Nguyen Anh Duong, head of the CIEM Departmentfor General Economic Issues and Integration Studies, pointed out the importanceof ensuring energy security, noting that Vietnam needs a more balanced energystructure, facilitate the reasonable export and import of energy, and promotemore substantive discussion on energy and sustainable development with otherGMS nations.
At the forum, Minh said there remains much roomfor Japan to bolster energy cooperation with the GMS countries, suggesting thatbesides taking part in suitable energy projects, Japan can also shareexperience in monitoring and assessing projects’ impacts and building plans andsolutions to deal with related risks.
With Japanese firms’ increased presence in theGMS, a sustainable energy policy of this region will also benefit the NortheastAsian nation, she added./.
VNA
