Speaking to the press on May 28, Ms. Myriam Ferran, Deputy Director General of the European Commission's Directorate-General for International Partnerships for International Development Policy, mentioned the EU's Global Gateway Strategy on green and sustainable investment, in which Vietnam is one of the top priority partners.

Preferred Partner

This strategy promotes investments to address global challenges such as climate change response, green transformation, digital transformation, sustainable transport, promoting human resources such as education, health care, medicine, ensuring fairness and bringing benefits to people.

According to Ms. Myriam, energy is the core area of ​​discussion during this working trip to Vietnam, aiming to help ensure Vietnam achieves its goal of net zero emissions by 2050, moving towards efficient use of renewable energy.

Grant aid contributions are the top choice for these goals. Accordingly, the EU is promoting the signing of a funding agreement equivalent to 500 million Euros for Vietnam within the framework of the Fair Energy Transition Partnership (JETP), implemented through the French Development Agency (AFD).

Climate change is a global challenge and the EU is working on it not only internally but also bilaterally. At the recent EU-ASEAN Summit, the EU pledged €10 billion to implement the contents related to the European Green Deal, Ms. Myriam Ferran noted. "Vietnam is a key partner in the Global Gateway strategy in the region and ASEAN," she said.

Explaining this, Ms. Myriam Ferran said that Vietnam is an important partner with one of the fastest growth rates in the world. Along with that, the demand for energy consumption and emissions will increase accordingly.

Specific projects

Also within the framework of the visit, the Deputy Director General of the European Commission's Directorate for International Partnerships will visit Ninh Thuan province to visit vocational education projects, climate change response projects in irrigation and water resources, and digital skills improvement.

Ms. Myriam mentioned the Bac Ai pumped storage hydropower plant - the first project of its kind in Vietnam with EU support - a symbol of cooperation in green transition and energy between the two sides.

The Deputy Director General of the EU also affirmed that the field of sustainable and green transport is certainly a priority in the global cooperation development strategy. The expansion of the second phase of the urban railway project No. 3 in Hanoi has the provision of EU pre-feasibility study support implemented by AFD.

According to information from the Vietnamese and EU ministries and agencies, they are discussing to implement specific projects within the framework of the Global Gateway. Among them, we can mention the TVET project on digital skills training with funding of 54 million Euros to be implemented in 30 localities of Vietnam.

Non-refundable aid is deployed under a blending mechanism, which supports loans and interest rates for large projects such as hydropower... mobilizing additional capital from the private sector to supplement public capital. For example, in the 2021-2024 period, the EU has committed to providing non-refundable aid of 210 million Euros to Vietnam. This figure is modest but plays an important role in creating important leverage to attract a total capital source many times larger, according to Ms. Myriam Ferran.

In the field of energy transition alone, the EU has committed ODA equivalent to 140 million Euros to Vietnam, through projects on legal reform, improving the quality of staff capacity, investing in related infrastructure...

Vietnam needs to take advantage of "dual conversion"

According to Ms. Myriam Ferran, energy transition is a core content in Vietnam's development process. This is a process that "must take place. Although it is difficult, this is a promising direction for Vietnam," emphasized the Deputy Director General of the European Commission's Directorate General for International Partnerships.

The EU recommends that Vietnam needs to implement a "dual transformation", promoting digital transformation and energy transformation at the same time.

"Digital transformation enables the transition to clean and affordable energy. They need to go hand in hand to create mutual support to realize Vietnam's development goals," said Ms. Myriam Ferran.