MEET-BIS Vietnam Project attended to the SWITCH-Asia Networking event and Asian Clean Energy Forum

The two events focus on discussing expertise and sharing experience toward sustainable development of Asia. While SWITCH-Asia program organizes the event for all grant projects to network with others for experience exchange and better understanding on sustainable consumption and production (SCP), ADB and USAID jointly organise the Asia Clean Energy Forum (ACEF) with the aim of sharing best practices in policy, technology, and finance to meet the region’s climate and energy security challenges.

Being one of 70 projects funded by the SWITCH-Asia program by the European Union, MEET-BIS Vietnam have participated in the 5th event in Kathmandu, Nepal on 18 – 20 June 2013. The event has a balanced combination of interactive discussions, presentations, communication lab session and free networking. Several SCP topics have been raised and discussed in the event, for example: energy efficiency, sustainable supply chain, sustainable construction, textile, effective training approaches, appropriate technologies, monitoring and SCP indicators, inclusive business etc. In addition to that, the communication lab has helped participants reflect their current communication tools and update new tools for better implementation in the future. During the event, MEET-BIS Vietnam has shared its experiences in implementing a project on energy efficiency business development support in Vietnamese context. Also, the project has been updated with new knowledge and experience through networking with several other projects in Asian countries.

Unlike the annual networking event by SWITCH-Asia, this is the first participation of MEET-BIS Vietnam in ACEF. The forum started with the Pre-forum and went in-depth into three topics of major importance for Unlocking Asia’s Clean Energy Future: role of the private sector in providing access to energy for all; latest efforts and opportunities for spreading energy efficiency across the Asian region; and latest technologies and developments in the Asia solar market.

At the invitation of ACEF organiser, MEET-BIS Vietnam has participated as one speaker and panelist in one of 32 main sessions: “Scaling up Energy Efficiency for the SME Market: Tricks of the Trade” on Jun.27 chaired by Mr. Koshy Cherail, President, Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy, India. The session has mentioned the critical issues with the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector in Asia in driving, dispersing economic development and employment creation. The session has drawn from practical experience in Vietnam, Cambodia, and India to present proven approaches to engage SMEs operators and mobilize the finance to realize energy savings potential. The session also included discussion on EE financing approaches and models by DFIs, with diverse examples.

MEET-BIS Vietnam has shared its implementation results approaching to urban Vietnam SMEs who are end-user for the EE equipment as well as technologies providers who have been facing with a lot of difficulties to penetrate EE market. With practically shared expertise from MEET-BIS, there have been a lot of arguments from participants about its replication in other countries in the region. Collaborating with leasing firms to create A2F component is one of initiative idea in the challenging situation with local banks that received much interests from audience. Through the forum, MEET-BIS has connected with some private investors who are ready and eager to fund and invest in enterprises. This is the very valuable solutions to establish and develop ESCO model in Vietnam.

For more information on the events, please look at the website:

http://www.switch-asia.eu/index.php?id=659;

http://www.asiacleanenergyforum.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=356&Itemid=84