National Assembly delegate: ‘If you want double-digit growth, you must be associated with energy development’

The above information was stated by Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Son, a full-time delegate at the National Assembly’s Committee on Science, Technology and Environment, at a group discussion session on the afternoon of April 9.

Mr. Son said that to achieve growth goals, the Government needs to solve many issues, including ensuring energy. “Energy must always accompany the goal of double-digit growth. If there is a local electricity shortage, growth targets in industry, services, logistics, data, AI… will all be chain-affected,” the delegate shared.

Therefore, according to him, the Government needs to consider ensuring electricity for production as the number one goal of management, as well as change the mindset “from self-balancing electricity industry to energy security as infrastructure for growth”.

The Hai Phong City delegation further commented that “saving electricity is the cheapest and fastest source of electricity”. He said that the Ministry of Industry and Trade needs to have a strong solution to save at least 10% during peak hot months and considers this a direct solution to reduce the pressure to invest in new power sources.

In addition, Mr. Son also said it is necessary to closely follow Power Plan 8, develop storage battery systems, LNG – these two sources will serve as additional background power sources for the system. Solar power with self-production and self-consumption mechanism in households, offices, and industrial parks also needs to be promoted. Finally, the delegate recommended reducing over-reliance on imported fuel and building strategic reserves.

Deputy Head of the National Assembly’s Economic and Financial Committee Pham Thi Thuy Chinh asked the Prime Minister to continue paying attention to national reserves. With petroleum – an important input fuel for a series of production and business sectors of the economy, she said there is currently no national reserve warehouse, mainly using enterprise warehouses. Enterprises are currently only storing finished petroleum products, not crude oil.

Therefore, this delegate said it is necessary to increase investment spending on petroleum reserves, because this field only accounts for 21% of total spending on reserves. At the same time, she also proposed modernizing technology and storage systems for other fields.

In a report submitted to the National Assembly, the Government aims to form a large-scale crude oil reserve system to diversify and maintain a stable supply for at least 90 days.

Currently, petroleum reserves are being stored at warehouses of large petroleum trading enterprises through contracts, paying fees according to norms with units. This reserve level is only about 7-10 days of consumption.

Speaking at the conference hall on the afternoon of April 9, Prime Minister Le Minh Hung affirmed that Vietnam will ensure national energy security in both the immediate and long term, especially the supply of crude oil and gas. He also requested to increase energy savings, ensure there is no shortage of electricity in any situation and improve the efficiency of electricity system operations.