At the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai said sustainable development is the common trend in the world and an urgent requirement of Vietnam. The country aims to exploit and use energy resources effectively to supply high quality energy at reasonable prices for socio-economic development, ensure national energy security, diversify investment and trading methods in the field of energy, gradually improve competitiveness in the energy market, strengthen new and recycled energy resources and protect environment. Mr Hai reaffirmed that the Vietnamese Government encourages businesses to use new and recycled energy. He expressed his hope that with experiences in using energy, French experts will help Vietnamese partners to conduct researches into sustainable energy development.

French Ambassador to Vietnam Herve Bolot said it is high time that the two countries strengthened co-operation, discussed long-term strategies, identified basic targets for sustainable energy development and effective use of energy and proposed suitable measures for the 2010-2015 period. Vietnam should devise criteria and mobilise capital for energy production to meet the increasing demands. The two countries will give priority to sustainable development, training and economic and trade expansion, Mr Bolot said.

The forum discussed issues related to the impact of energy policies on CO2 exhaustion, electricity generation and CO2 exhaustion, energy efficiency and economic growth, management policy and capital mobilisation for energy policies. Vietnamese and French experts reported on the results of research into medium and long-term challenges of energy policies, measures to combine economic development with environmental protection and gas exhaustion which causes the greenhouse effect.

According to evaluation reports at the forum, Vietnam’s economy has developed strongly in recent decades, leading to increasing demands for energy. Over the past 20 years, energy consumption has increased by 10.7 times (around 66 billion kWh in 2008). Electric power consumption in Vietnam is still much lower than in other countries over the world, especially in Asia and ASEAN. Vietnam’s energy sector has made significant progress in terms of exploration, exploitation, production, transmiton and distribution. The scale of operations in the coal, electricity and oil industries is now much bigger than 10 years ago, meeting the current requirement for socio-economic development of the country.