Hanoi, 29 March 2021 – The “Transport and Climate Change” project of GIZ (TCC), in cooperation with two departments of the Vietnamese Ministry of Transport (Vietnam Register and Department of Environment), organised a workshop to discuss with stakeholders on how to move forward the fuel efficiency policies in Vietnam. The participants were from governmental organisations; manufactures; academia as well as automobile and motorcycle associations.
The objectives of the workshop were: 1) To create a common understanding of fuel efficiency policy among stakeholders, 2) To share international experiences of fuel efficiency policy for the benefit of Vietnam, and 3) To receive recommendations and suggestions from the participants on how to move forward fuel efficiency in Vietnam.
During the first part of the workshop, a brief overview of the TCC’s activities, its impacts and achievements from Phase 1 of its work, as well as TCC’s works on fuel efficiency policies was introduced by the project Team Leader, Mr. Tali Trigg. Finally, Mr. Trigg gave an update on the existing situation and actions related to fuel efficiency activities at the ASEAN level.
Mrs. Bich, the official of the Department of Environment, Science and Technology (Vietnam Register), then gave a brief overview of the vehicle fleet, fuel products, and energy providers in Vietnam. In addition, the current situation of the fuel efficiency policies in Vietnam was also detailed with highlights on three policy goals:
- To improve the fuel quality, and alternative fuel usage;
- To control new assembled, manufactured and imported vehicles; and
- To apply fiscal measures such as vehicle taxes, tax incentives and fuel taxes.
To share the international experiences and lessons learnt in the field of fuel efficiency policy, Mr. Alex Koerner (GIZ consultant) delivered a comprehensive presentation on how to move forward fuel efficiency policy in Vietnam with a focus on fuel economy policies and instruments including regulatory ones(fuel economy/ CO2 emission standards); monetary ones – fiscal instruments (e.g. road pricing), and consumer information. Some interesting case studies of feebate schemes in Singapore, France and Canada were then introduced and attracted much attention from the participants.
In the last part of the presentation, Mr. Koerner introduced the ‘Fuel Economy Policy Impact assessment Tool’ (FEPIT), which was developed by the International Energy Agency (IEA). The tool serves as a basis for allowing countries to analyse potential outcomes of different policy options based on the characteristics of their vehicle fleet in a range of different scenarios.
Following the presentations, the discussion session was chaired by Mr. Dang Viet Ha, the Deputy Director General of the Vietnam Register in order to receive feedback, comments, and questions from the participants. The participants shared some of their ideas and thoughts including feebate scheme issues, ideas for increased consumer awareness, and labelling questions around motorcycles.
In the closing speech of the workshop, Mr. Ha stressed the need for fuel efficiency policy implementation and encouraged the cooperation between the relevant agencies in moving forward fuel efficiency policy in Vietnam.
In order to engage local stakeholders to continue efforts to increase fuel efficiency in Thailand as well, a similarly structured workshop took place on March 28, in Bangkok.