On September 30, Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien chaired a roundtable in Hanoi to implement Resolution No. 70-NQ/TW of the Politburo and the Government’s action plan on ensuring national energy security, with a focus on building a competitive electricity market.

The event gathered representatives of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT)'s departments, the National Load Dispatch Center, major energy corporations, enterprises, experts, and regulators. Discussions centered on four key issues: (1) Developing, adjusting, and completing the legal framework; (2) Restructuring the power sector; (3) Improving infrastructure for the electricity system and market; (4) Reforming the electricity pricing mechanism, especially advancing competition at the generation, wholesale, and retail levels.

Resolution 70, issued on August 20, 2025, highlights persistent shortcomings: Vietnam’s energy markets remain fragmented, with weak interconnections between sub-sectors. Electricity pricing policies still contain distortions, including cross-subsidies between customer groups.

Minister Nguyen Hong Dien underlined that developing a competitive electricity market and reforming pricing mechanisms is an irreversible trend, crucial to sustaining high economic growth and providing new momentum for the energy sector.

Vietnam has pursued this goal for over a decade. Decision No. 63/2013/QD-TTg laid out a roadmap: completing a competitive wholesale electricity market by 2021 and rolling out a retail electricity market after 2023.

However, progress has been slow. The country remains at the initial stage of wholesale competition, hampered by both objective and subjective factors. This delay has created bottlenecks in investment attraction, financing, third-party grid access, and power price negotiations.

Electricity Regulatory Authority Director Pham Nguyen Hung noted that these barriers must be removed quickly to transform weaknesses into strengths, creating a solid foundation for future growth.

The roundtable aimed to accelerate market reforms, ensuring competition across generation, wholesale, and retail segments. According to Minister Nguyen Hong Dien, this is not only vital for guaranteeing national energy security but also for injecting new momentum into Vietnam’s economic growth in the coming decades.