Workers from Vietnam Electricity (EVN) instruct a business owner in Hà Nội's Thanh Oai District on how to use power economically and efficiently. — VNA/VNS Photo HÀ NỘI — The World Bank, acting on behalf of the Green Climate Fund (GCF), has signed a grant worth US$11.3 million with the State Bank of Việt Nam to support the development of a commercial financing market for industrial energy efficiency investments. The total financing from the GCF also includes a $75 million guarantee. Out of the grant, $8.3 million will be used to build capacities for the private sector to identify, appraise and execute energy efficiency projects. It will also provide technical assistance to the Ministry of Industry and Trade and authorities to strengthen policy frameworks and regulations and create an enabling environment to accelerate the energy efficiency market in Việt Nam. The remaining grant funds and the guarantee will be used to establish a risk-sharing facility to provide partial credit guarantees to support local banks who may risk potential defaults on loans for energy efficiency projects. By reducing lending risks, the facility is expected to mobilise about $250 million of commercial financing to be provided to industrial enterprises and energy service companies at competitive terms and with low collateral requirements. Carolyn Turk, Country Director for the World Bank in Việt Nam, said: “Scaling up energy efficiency is the single best and lowest cost option to achieve multiple goals at once: meeting energy demand, preventing pollution and reducing greenhouses emission while also increasing industry competitiveness.” “Against the context of limited public financing for energy, the risk-sharing facility is an innovative financial instrument to crowd in private sector investment financing for a greater uptake of industry-wide energy efficiency measures,” she added. The grant and guarantee are executed under the 'Việt Nam Scaling up Energy Efficiency …
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VIETNAM NEWS HEADLINES MARCH 8
Vietnam begins COVID-19 vaccination on March 8 Vietnam launches its COVID-19 inoculation drive on March 8 morning, administering the AstraZeneca vaccine to medical workers in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and northern Hai Duong province – the country’s biggest pandemic hotspot at present. The vaccination is conducted at the Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi, the HCM City Hospital for Tropical Diseases and two medical centres in Hai Duong. As many as 100 staff members of the Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases are expected to receive the shots in the morning of March 8. The hospital is allocated 450 doses among the first batch of 117,600 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine the country has received. In Hai Duong, 50 medical workers at Hai Duong city’s medical centre, and 30 others at Kim Thanh district’s medical centre will be the first in the province to be injected. The Ministry of Health has allocated the vaccine to 13 localities, along with the Ministry of National Defence, the Ministry of Public Security and 21 hospitals during the first phase. Among the localities, all having reported COVID-19 cases since the latest wave of outbreaks since January 27, the Hanoi Centre for Disease Control (CDC) is given 8,000 doses, Hai Duong CDC 32,000, and HCM City CDC 8,000. Meanwhile, the Ministry of National Defence and the Ministry of Public Security each receive 30,000 doses. At a meeting on March 6, Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long stressed the need to ensure equality in vaccine access as suggested by the WHO, UNICEF and COVAC. The localities excluded in the first phase should continue to prepare for the inoculation, with training programmes, he said, adding that they would receive the vaccine after the next shipment arrives in Vietnam in March. The ministry will roll out the vaccination in all COVID-19 treatment hospitals, prioritising those involved in frontline work, and those who participate in the pandemic combat in the community like …
Cautious optimism
In his latest assessment of the global economic outlook, OECD Chief Economist Laurence Boone said for the first time since the pandemic began, there is now hope for a brighter future, progress with vaccines and treatment have lifted expectations and uncertainty has receded. However, the OECD has cautioned that the recovery will be uneven across countries. Where vaccine are deployed in countries with effective test, track and isolate systems, economic performance will be relatively improved. Output in many other countries is projected to remain around 5% below pre-crisis expectations in 2022. So far, the global recovery has been supported by trillions of dollars pumped in by governments and central banks. The OECD has stressed that the money taps must be kept open, despite breakthroughs on the vaccine front. The recovery has been seen to be stronger and faster, because more and more activities have resumed. In Asia, manufacturing activities continued to recover steadily in November, with positive signs recorded in the Chinese economy. Manufacturing activities in China have accelerated the fastest in ten years, showing that the world's second-largest economy is slowly returning to pre-pandemic growth. Stable recovery of global demand also helped manufacturing activities in Japan move close to a stable level, while manufacturing in the Republic of Korea has also reached its fastest pace in nearly ten years. The world's number one economy has also witnessed a recovery, though still fragile. The US Federal Reserve (FED) affirmed that measures to support short-term funding of markets are helping increase the flow of credit in the US economy. Progress in the labour market and positive information on the development of vaccines against COVID-19 have helped create more impetus for economic recovery. The US Secretary of the Treasury assessed that the package of measures under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act worth US$2.2 trillion has helped …