On 17 November 2022, Mr. Phung Anh Tuan, the Managing Partner of VCI Legal participated as a presenting sponsor of the Vietnam Offshore Wind Congress & Expo 2022 in Hanoi. At the conference, Mr. Phung Anh Tuan presented the topic “Challenges and Risk Mitigation in Financing Offshore Wind Projects in Vietnam“, and discussed legal and practical solutions with prominent industry leaders and government officials from across the region related to the offshore wind industry.

Renewable energy development is a major policy of the Government of Vietnam, in which offshore wind power is determined as a breakthrough solution in the energy transformation, ensuring national energy security. The draft of the National Power Development Plan for the period 2021-2030, with a vision to 2045 submitted to the Government by the Ministry of Industry and Trade for approval, sets the target to reach about 7GW of offshore wind power by 2030. For a country with great potential for offshore wind power development, this target is not too difficult. The main challenge is the lack of effective solutions.

Mr. Phung Anh Tuan, through his presentation, raised challenges and some solutions to mitigate risks in financing offshore wind power projects in the current context of Vietnam. The main points covered, included: 

1. Investment protection treaties and investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) as solutions for power purchase agreement (PPA) and bankability risks;
2. The “Un-bankability” and other issues of the PPA template for wind and solar;
3. Recommended solutions (Feed-in tariffs, PPA, Dispute settlement & risk management); and
4. Investment protection & ISDS mechanism.

The presentation brought more awareness to the business community by noting the practice of current obstacles for offshore wind power, solutions for PPA, and bankability risks under investment protection treaties and ISDS. The slides can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/16J7I4oZAOejzprcm50ApfQl7H_hGXbFP/view?usp=sharing

About VCI Legal: 

VCI Legal is an international award-winning, full-service business law firm in Vietnam. The firm provides a wide range of advisory services and has gained a strong reputation for successfully handling corporate, commercial, financial and contentious matters. The firm’s practice areas which have been highly recommended by various international magazines and agencies include: Corporate/M&A, Banking and Finance, Capital Markets, Insurance, FDI, cross-border transactions, Competition, Dispute Resolution, Energy, Infrastructure, IPR Management and Real Estate. 

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