On August 20, 2025, the Politburo issued Resolution No. 70/NQ-TW on ensuring national energy security until 2030, with a vision to 2045.
It refers to the limitations of the electricity market. For example, the competitive energy market has not developed synchronously, lacking connectivity between sub-sectors, especially the electricity market, which still has many limitations; the energy price policy is still inadequate, not really in line with the market mechanism; there is still a situation of cross-subsidization of electricity prices for some customer groups.
At the same time, Resolution 70 also sets out a number of key tasks and solutions, including: Developing the electricity market in the direction of enhancing competitiveness, transparency, efficiency, and synchronization with ensuring energy security; Applying market prices for all types of energy, building transparent energy prices determined by the market, without cross-subsidization; Building and perfecting an electricity transaction system, including a transparent, stable, long-term electricity purchase and sale contract mechanism, ensuring the legitimate rights and interests of investors.
Deploying the task assigned by the Prime Minister to the Ministry of Industry and Trade in Decision No. 1544/QD-TTg dated December 11, 2024, the Ministry of Industry and Trade is presiding over the drafting of the Prime Minister's Decision regulating the roadmap, conditions and structure of the electricity industry to develop competitive electricity market levels in Vietnam.
On November 27, 2025 at the headquarters of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Deputy Minister Nguyen Hoang Long chaired a meeting of the Drafting Committee of the Prime Minister's Decision regulating the roadmap, principles of operation, structure of the electricity industry and conditions for forming and developing competitive market levels in Vietnam.
The development of the Draft Decision will be implemented from mid-2025, through many conferences and consultations with units in the industry and independent experts, ensuring compliance with the Electricity Law, Resolution No. 70-NQ/TW and approved power industry development strategies.
At the meeting, the Ministry of Industry and Trade reported on the process of receiving and completing the contents of the Draft Decision. In which, focusing on synchronously supplementing the principles of electricity market operation at each level; updating requirements and conditions on the electricity industry structure in each stage to ensure the competitive electricity market operates effectively, fairly, transparently, and is suitable for practice; clarifying the requirement to separate the functions of electricity distribution and retail according to the roadmap to avoid monopoly and create a premise for forming a competitive electricity retail market.
Delegates focused on discussing and agreeing on important technical issues such as limiting the market share of power generation units to prevent market dominance and control; requirements for the electricity sector structure, especially service providers such as power transmission units and power distribution units; perfecting the mechanism of power purchase and sale contracts and payment in the competitive wholesale market; transfer functions and payment roles in the spot-to- spot market, requirements for developing and approving designs for competitive electricity markets at all levels; along with the proposal to remove obstacles related to the value-added tax mechanism for term electricity contracts, which has been a bottleneck in the practical operation of the market in recent times.
In his speech, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hoang Long acknowledged the active coordination of ministries, branches, energy corporations and related units in the process of drafting the Draft.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade requests the Electricity Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade) to continue to closely follow the spirit of Resolution No. 70-NQ/TW of the Politburo on developing a competitive energy market and ensuring national energy security, urgently completing the Draft Decision dossier based on the opinions agreed at the meeting to send to the Ministry of Justice for appraisal in accordance with the set plan.
At the same time, the Ministry also requested relevant units to continue to accompany and closely coordinate in the process of completing and preparing for implementation after the Decision is issued, ensuring requirements on enhancing competitiveness, attracting socialized investment, transparency of electricity costs and prices, improving the operational efficiency of the electricity industry, serving the goals of socio-economic development and people's lives.
