Pressure from global economic and energy fluctuations
On March 13, at a workshop on solutions to promote double-digit growth from traditional and new drivers in the context of ensuring energy stability in Ho Chi Minh City organized by the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, Mr. Vo Van Tan - Chairman of Petrolimex Saigon Co., Ltd. said that the city is continuing to promote traditional growth drivers such as investment, production and consumption. At the same time, gradually forming new drivers such as the International Finance Center, urban metro system and many strategic infrastructure projects.
These orientations will lead to increasing energy demand for transportation, manufacturing and services. However, the world energy market is strongly affected by geopolitical factors such as the Russia-Ukraine conflict or tensions in the Middle East.
To ensure supply, businesses are implementing many solutions such as proactively stockpiling goods, optimizing distribution systems and promoting fuel supply for manufacturing enterprises as well as key infrastructure projects.
From a management perspective, Ms. Nguyen Thi Kim Ngoc - Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Industry and Trade said that gasoline and oil are still the main fuel sources for transportation, logistics and part of industrial production.
Currently, Ho Chi Minh City has 1,191 gasoline retail stores and 252 gas business traders. However, the distribution system still has some limitations such as uneven distribution between the central and suburban areas, many small-scale stores and difficulty expanding.
In addition, the gas sector also depends quite heavily on imports. About 70% of LPG production is related to sources from the Middle East, so when strategic transport routes are affected, delivery times can be delayed by 1-3 weeks. Therefore, the city needs to continue to diversify supply sources, improve reserve capacity and build contingency plans.
According to the Department of Industry and Trade, Ho Chi Minh City's electricity, gasoline and gas supply system basically meets socio-economic development needs. However, in the face of high growth targets and the context of the world energy market still fluctuating, the city's energy system is under increasing pressure and needs to be strengthened in terms of infrastructure, forecasting and operating capacity.
Energy is the "blood vessel" to maintain growth momentum
According to Mr. Nguyen Van Duoc - Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, to achieve the goal of double-digit growth in the context of global fluctuations, Ho Chi Minh City needs to build a comprehensive security assurance system, including economic security, energy security and supply chain security. In which, energy is considered the "blood vessel" of the economy. Ensuring stable energy supply is a prerequisite for maintaining sustainable growth.
The city has worked with relevant agencies to review and ensure energy supply in the coming periods. At the same time, Ho Chi Minh City is also studying options for building energy storage and transit infrastructure to increase proactiveness in the face of world market fluctuations.
The city will continue to complete the action plan to implement the double-digit growth target. In which, the Ho Chi Minh City Development Research Institute will take the lead in coordinating with departments and branches to complete the project and submit it to the Standing Committee of the City Party Committee to develop an overall action program for the whole city.
At the same time, functional agencies need to focus on ensuring the foundational conditions for growth, especially energy security. The Department of Industry and Trade will take the lead in building a system to monitor energy supply and demand, assess response capacity for the next period and develop response scenarios to price fluctuations or the risk of supply disruption.
Relevant departments and sectors also need to accelerate the progress of strategic infrastructure projects, especially urban transport, logistics and energy infrastructure, while improving the efficiency of public investment capital disbursement.
