Malaysia, Vietnam seek stronger cooperation in energy and Halal fields

Minister Dien is accompanying Party General Secretary and his spouse on an official visit to Malaysia.

At the working session, Dien hailed the interest and cooperation of TNB Renewables Sdn Bhd as well as Malaysian businesses with Vietnam, saying that the nation boasts huge potential for wind power development as it has a coastline of more than 3,260 kilometres.

He stated that the power grid connecting from Vietnam to Malaysia and Singapore will be part of the green power grid between Southeast Asian nations. Dien affirmed Vietnam’s readiness to offer favourable conditions for investors to carry out research and survey locations in a bid to develop renewable energy power projects to serve green electricity export projects.

TNB Renewables is a fully-owned subsidiary of Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB), Malaysia's leading electricity utility company which accounts for 50% of Malaysia's electricity capacity market share.

Malaysia has built an energy transition roadmap, aiming for net zero emissions by 2050. To achieve that goal, TNB is focusing on four major areas in the energy transition process, including expanding investment in renewable energy at home and abroad, promoting decarbonization technology, modernising the power grid and improving grid efficiency.

In response, Datuk Ir. Dr. Shamsul Ahmad, TNB Chief Regulatory and Stakeholder Management Officer, affirmed that the firm is poised to speed up the sustainable energy transition process in Malaysia as well as Southeast Asia.

In recent times, the company has been highly interested in investment cooperation with Vietnam in the area of onshore and offshore wind power, he said, while hoping that the two sides will not only support and facilitate the development of existing joint projects but also expand investment cooperation projects in third countries.

Concerning Halal cooperation, this is an area of cooperation that has captured great attention from both nations’ senior leaders, and plays a very important role, not only helping to increase bilateral trade turnover between Vietnam and Malaysia but also helping enterprises of both sides exploit business opportunities in other markets. In that spirit, the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Asia-Africa Market Department and the Halal Development Corporation (HDC) signed a Letter of Intent on Halal cooperation on November 22,

According to Vietnam Trade Counsellor in Malaysia Le Phu Cuong the recently signed Letter of Intent is important, thereby supporting the recognition of common goals of both sides in training and organising exhibitions, seminars and symposiums on Halal products in Vietnam and Malaysia. This activity helps improve businesses' understanding of Halal exports to the Malaysian market and Muslim countries’ markets as well.

Only about 1,000 businesses exporting to the Malaysian market have Halal certificates for about 3,000 products so far. This agreement will help solve one of the major difficulties of Vietnamese businesses exporting to the Malaysian market, which is Halal certification.

Currently, there is plenty of room for economic and trade cooperation between the two countries, including the fields of energy and Halal products.

However, to ramp up this substantive and effective cooperation, the two sides need to boost trade promotion activities, connect businesses to popularize each other's products, and intensify search and cooperation in areas where both sides have strengths, Cuong emphasized.