Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien recently held a working session with the Finnish Ambassador to Vietnam and Finnish businesses to outline orientation for ramping up cooperation in trade, industry and energy between the two countries.

At the meeting, Minister Nguyen Hong Dien hailed the fruitful bilateral cooperation along with the potential for great advantages in economic and trade relations, and welcomed Finnish businesses for actively engaging in this process as a means of promoting two-way trade growth and economic development of the two countries.

On this occasion, the Finnish Ambassador to Vietnam expressed his desire to support Finnish businesses in expanding investment cooperation activities in the Vietnamese market in a variety of areas, especially energy.

The Ambassador introduced Wärtsilä as Finland's leading enterprise in the field of energy transition, with solutions for flexible Internal. Combustion Engine (ICE) power plants that have been deployed in many places around the world.

President and CEO for Wärtsilä Corporation Håkan Agnevall introduced in detail the ICE flexible power technology that the Group owns, and briefed the Minister on the situation of cooperation with Power Generation Corporation 3 (EVN GENCO3) and expressed his desire to research, invest and deploy the ICE flexible power project in Ninh Binh province with Vietnamese partners.

Also during the working session, Minister Nguyen Hong Dien highly appreciated the recent cooperation activities regarding project implementation between Wärtsilä Group and EVN GENCO3.

Vietnam is an ideal destination for foreign investors as it is among the 15 countries with the best environment for FDI attraction, and is always one of the 20 countries with the largest trade scale in the world, while annual economic growth rate is always maintained at a high level, the Minister told his guest.

Dien shared orientations for developing energy sources in Power Plan VIII to achieve Vietnam's carbon neutrality goal by 2050 and the goal of industrialization and modernization by 2030 with a vision to 2045.

He gave an overview of the process and procedures regarding foreign investors' participation in domestic energy projects.

Thereby, the Minister requested Wärtsilä Group and EVN GENCO3 to carefully research and survey, to be able to come up with a feasible plan ensuring socio-economic efficiency.

The President of Wärtsilä Corporation accepted the Minister's opinions and pledged to have a detailed study and report on the project to submit to the Ministry of Industry and Trade and competent agencies for consideration. He also affirmed his orientation and commitment to long-term investment in the Vietnamese market, while supporting Vietnam's energy transition roadmap.

Regarding broader cooperation activities between Finland and Vietnam, the Minister proposed that the Finnish Ambassador launch a broad array of specific activities to encourage more Finnish businesses to cooperate with Vietnamese counterparts in order to implement important projects in the near future, thereby contributing to the cooperation and development of the two countries.

Echoing with Dien's views, the Ambassador pledged to continue bringing major Finnish businesses to Vietnam to explore investment cooperation opportunities in the time ahead, creating a premise to further deepen Vietnam - Finland diplomacy that has gone through more than 50 years (1973 - 2024).

VOV