Creating favorable conditions for businesses to import and export coal from Laos

Mr. NGUYEN TRUONG KHOA, Director of Department of Industry and Trade, answered the interview

- Sir! Could you please tell us about the role of energy in promoting the socio -economic development of the country in general and the locality in particular, especially in realizing the determination to "Build Quang Tri to become the energy center of the Central region by 2030"?

- The 13th National Party Congress has set the goal of making our country a developed, high-income country by 2045. To achieve this goal, the requirement of developing corresponding energy is of strategic importance, because energy is an important foundation for socio-economic development.

This is specified in Resolution No. 55-NQ/TW of 2020 of the Politburo on the orientation of the National Energy Development Strategy to 2030, with a vision to 2045. The Resolution of the 17th Provincial Party Congress continues to choose the energy industry as one of the breakthrough development areas with the determination to "Build Quang Tri to become the energy center of the Central region by 2030".

On July 26, 2023, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 893/QD-TTg approving the National Energy Master Plan for the 2021-2030 period, with a vision to 2050. Accordingly, the Government has oriented: energy plays an important and essential role in socio-economic development. Energy development must be one step ahead, must be long-term and effective to firmly ensure national energy security; promote national development, build an independent and self-reliant economy, and improve people's lives.

Creating favorable conditions for businesses to import and export coal from Laos

National Highway 15D from La Lay International Border Gate passes through Salavan province, connecting with the southern provinces of Laos, creating favorable conditions for traffic, including the export and import of coal from Laos to Quang Tri - Photo: D.T

In particular, the Government has set out the planning goals for each energy sub-sector, including the oil and gas sub-sector, the coal sub-sector, the new and renewable energy sub-sector, and the electricity sub-sector. Accordingly, the coal sub-sector is determined: in the period 2021 - 2030, it is expected to import with increasing volume and reach about 73 million tons by 2030.

In the period 2031-2050, it is expected to continue to increase and peak at about 85 million tons in 2035, then gradually decrease to about 50 million tons in 2045, in which the demand for imported coal of thermal power plants planned to use imported coal in 2035 is about 64 million tons and gradually decreases to about 34 million tons in 2045.

According to the report of the Department of Oil, Gas and Coal of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, in 2023, the expected output of commercial coal is about 57.88 million tons, of which domestically produced commercial coal is about 44.68 million tons and imported coal is about 13.2 million tons. Calculations also show that the total amount of coal consumed in 2023 is about 56.95 million tons.

Of which, coal supplied for electricity production is about 46.16 million tons; supplied for fertilizer and chemical production is about 2.5 million tons; supplied for cement production is about 1.74 million tons; supplied for other activities is about 4.52 million tons and exported is about 2.03 million tons.

In the current context, our country's economy is facing many difficulties, stemming from geopolitical conflicts in the world, energy crisis leading to high input fuel prices for manufacturing industries.

At the working session with key units of the coal industry, the Minister of Industry and Trade directly directed relevant units to urgently organize research on Laos' mechanisms and policies related to coal trading activities and survey the Lao coal market, coal transportation routes to Vietnam, and have plans to prepare a system of coal warehouses and ports in suitable locations, especially in localities bordering Laos, to be able to effectively receive imported coal from Laos, and to organize a review of the warehouse system in the Central region to study and propose the development of plans and transit warehouses to reserve coal to ensure sufficient and stable supply of domestic and export coal demand.

- Could you please tell us about the important initial steps to promote cooperation between Vietnam and Laos in the field of coal trade, especially the target of exporting 20 million tons of coal from Laos to Vietnam each year depending on the actual market conditions and needs of each side; promoting investment cooperation in coal mining, processing and export; enhancing experience sharing to improve capacity in the field of coal mining and processing.

- On July 20, 2023, the Memorandum of Understanding on Coal Cooperation between Vietnam and Laos was signed by the Minister of Industry and Trade of Vietnam and the Minister of Energy and Mines of Laos.

The Memorandum of Understanding contains many important contents to promote cooperation between the two countries in the field of coal trade, especially the target of exporting 20 million tons of coal from Laos to Vietnam each year depending on the actual market conditions and needs of each side; promoting investment cooperation in coal mining, processing and export; enhancing experience sharing to improve capacity in the field of coal mining and processing.

The signing of the Memorandum of Understanding not only affirms the determination of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam and the Ministry of Energy and Mines of Laos in implementing the direction of senior leaders, contributing to perfecting the cooperation framework between Vietnam and Laos, consolidating the solidarity and special friendship between the Party, State and People of the two countries, but also contributes to ensuring national energy security, promoting Vietnam's energy transition process according to international commitments. At the same time, it creates conditions for Laos to effectively exploit and promote its potentials and advantages to boost socio-economic development, ensure national defense and security.

Quang Tri shares borders with Salavan, Savannakhet provinces and is close to Sekong province - provinces with large coal mining and reserves in Laos. The distance from coal mines in neighboring provinces to the Cua Viet and My Thuy seaport systems of Quang Tri is considered the closest and most convenient.

From here, coal can be transported by sea to factories in the South and North or exported to the world market through the Pacific gateway; actively contributing to meeting Laos' coal export demand and Vietnam's coal import demand.

This is a prerequisite for Quang Tri and neighboring Lao provinces to jointly research and coordinate to advise the leaders of the two countries on specific mechanisms and policies, creating favorable conditions for businesses to invest, exploit, process and trade coal to develop, contributing positively to the construction and development of the two countries.

- Sir! What role has the Quang Tri Industry and Trade sector played in researching and proposing solutions to facilitate businesses and investors in implementing production and business activities related to the energy sector, including coal import and export activities from Laos?

- In order to contribute to ensuring general energy security for the whole country, in recent times, in addition to advising provincial leaders on the development of the energy sector in general, the Quang Tri Industry and Trade Department has actively researched and proactively proposed solutions to create favorable conditions for enterprises and investors to carry out production and business activities related to the energy sector, including coal import and export activities from Laos.

From 2021 to 2023, the amount of coal imported through La Lay International Border Gate will reach about 2.7 million tons, worth over 220 million USD. It is expected that in the coming time, the amount of coal exported from Laos through La Lay International Border Gate will increase, reaching 20-30 million tons/year.

Implementing the direction of the provincial leaders, the Department of Industry and Trade has prepared the content, organized the reception and worked with the working delegation of the Ministry of Industry and Trade to conduct a comprehensive survey of related contents to propose and recommend to the Governments of the two countries in planning mechanisms and policies to create the most favorable conditions for the production, business, export and import of coal by enterprises from Laos to Vietnam.

Consulting on the development and supplementation of logistics planning, warehouse system planning... with sufficient scale and capacity to serve coal trading enterprises. In addition, the Industry and Trade sector has also actively coordinated with relevant local departments and branches to focus on planning and implementing investment in transport infrastructure, border gate infrastructure, seaports, dry ports, specialized ports, warehouses, wharves... connecting the transport of goods, especially coal from Laos to Cua Viet and My Thuy seaports.

- To promote the advantages of the East-West Economic Corridor, how has Quang Tri province paid attention to creating favorable conditions for investment, import and export trade of enterprises; attracting enterprises to research, propose and invest in energy projects in the area, especially coal import and export business from Laos, sir?

- To promote the role and position of an important trade gateway of the East-West Economic Corridor, in recent times, Quang Tri has mobilized all resources to invest in infrastructure development, especially in transport infrastructure, creating favorable conditions for investment and import-export trade of enterprises.

The province has also directed the implementation of many strategies to attract businesses to research, propose and invest in energy projects in the area, especially coal import and export business activities from Laos; actively support and accompany investors to remove difficulties and obstacles in the implementation process, deploy investment, production and business plans more and more effectively.

The Provincial People's Committee is directing the sectors to implement Resolution No. 04/NQ-CP dated January 5, 2024 of the Government on investing in the construction of a conveyor belt system for transporting coal from Laos to Vietnam across the territorial border of the two countries at the La Lay International Border Gate area; promptly coordinate and effectively implement the working minutes between the high-level delegation of Quang Tri province and Sekong province, agreeing to propose that the competent authorities of Laos soon issue a written consent so that the two provinces of Quang Tri and Salavan have a basis to implement the next procedures of the conveyor belt project for transporting coal from Laos to Vietnam and issues related to the transportation of coal from Sekong to Quang Tri.

Propose that competent authorities and the Governments of the two countries allow the extension of working hours of functional forces at the La Lay - La Lay International Border Gate pair between Salavan and Quang Tri provinces to meet the needs of customs clearance of large volumes of goods of enterprises; resolutely direct relevant agencies of the two provinces to actively promote the implementation of the contents of the memorandum of understanding at the high-level talks between the two provinces signed on August 30, 2023.

In addition, the provincial leaders have continued to pay attention and organize conferences to summarize and evaluate the results of the implementation of the memorandum of understanding signed at the high-level talks between Quang Tri province and Lao provinces to create close coordination between localities in supporting businesses of both sides to develop coal import and export business from Laos.

To continue supporting businesses in the process of investing in production, trading, exporting and importing coal from Laos to Vietnam, the province needs to strengthen the direction of advisory agencies to clearly define the legal basis, responsibilities and authority of all levels and sectors in advising, researching solutions and proposing specific mechanisms and policies to submit to the Government for consideration and permission for implementation with the aim of serving sustainable development for both countries.

Continue to recommend the central government to consider and study the inclusion in the detailed planning of seaports, ports, wharves, buoys, water areas, and water regions for the period 2021 - 2030, with a vision to 2050, creating conditions for the early formation of specialized ports to receive cargo ships serving coal import and export projects from Laos to develop in accordance with the overall energy planning in the province; arrange medium and long-term investment capital sources to upgrade, renovate and build new transport infrastructure, ports, border gates, etc. to serve the socio-economic development of the province in general and coal import and export activities in particular.

Enterprises planning to invest and develop coal import and export business activities with Laos need to study technical conditions to invest in new technologies, combining multimodal transportation; by road (specialized containers), conveyor belts, waterways, railways...

It is necessary to analyze and compare the advantages of transportation options, the benefits of businesses and localities in the overall national benefits; solutions to handle environmental impacts... when proposing to build projects in the province. In addition, it is necessary to further study the contents of activities to create regional linkages, linkages of key projects of the province to increase investment efficiency.

With the attention, close direction and facilitation of the Government, ministries, central departments and branches; the determination of the entire political system, people and businesses have promoted the favorable geographical location, creating an important breakthrough to achieve the goals of the Resolution of the 17th Quang Tri Provincial Party Congress and Action Program No. 15-CT/TU dated April 27, 2021 of the Quang Tri Provincial Party Committee to implement Resolution No. 55-NQ/TW dated February 11, 2020 of the Politburo on the orientation of Vietnam's National Energy Development Strategy to 2030, with a vision to 2045.

Thank you very much!

Dao Tam Thanh (performed)

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