HANOI: Vietnam’s prime minister approved a long-awaited power plan for this decade that needs US$134.7 billion of funding for new power plants and grids, the government said late on Monday (May 15), in a move that may help unlock billions of dollars of foreign investment.

The plan, known as PDP8, is aimed at ensuring energy security for the Southeast Asian country while it begins the transition from its current heavy reliance on coal to becoming carbon-neutral by mid-century.

Amid internal squabbles and work on complex reforms, the plan has been delayed for more than two years, and has seen a dozen of draft versions before the approval by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, which now needs the formal green light from the rubber-stamp parliament, possibly this month, before its final adoption.

The plan is important to unlock an initial investment of US$15.5 billion in green-transition funds pledged to Vietnam in December by the Group of 7 (G7) nations and other wealthier countries. Half of the funds will come from the public sector and the rest from private investors.

After the deal, negotiators
have struggled for months to progress on preliminary work to allocate the funding, multiple officials told Reuters, as Vietnam officials maintained their reticence to accept loans, which are by far the biggest component of the promised public funds.

One diplomat from the G7
donors’ group told Reuters on Tuesday the approval was an important step, necessary to unlock funding for renewable projects, especially offshore wind. It was however not completely in line with G7 goals, the diplomat added, as the country will still heavily rely on coal this decade.

To complete its transition to carbon-neutrality with total phase-out of coal by 2050, the government estimates it needs a whopping US$658 billion, of which one-fifth would have to be disbursed this decade.

The industry ministry, which prepared the document, said in a statement late on Monday that, under the plan, half of office buildings and homes in Vietnam would be powered by rooftop solar panels by 2030.

The country would also aim to generate green energy for exports, with a target of 5 to 10 gigawatts (GW) by 2030.

Source: Reuters

China’s fixed-asset investment went up 4.7 percent year on year in the first four months of 2023, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed Tuesday.
Fixed-asset investment totaled 14.75 trillion yuan (2.12 trillion U.S. dollars) from January to April, the bureau said.

Fixed-asset investment from the private sector rose 0.4 percent year on year in the first four months.

Industrial investment surged 8.3 percent year on year. Of the total, investment shrank by 2.2 percent in the mining industry, but went up 6.4 percent in the manufacturing sector. Investment in the supply of electricity, heating, gas, and water soared 24.4 percent.

Investment in infrastructure construction went up 8.5 percent year on year. Of the total, investment expanded 14 percent in railway transportation and 10.7 percent in water conservancy management.

In terms of regions, investment gained 9.8 percent in northeastern China, 6.2 percent in eastern China and 3.2 percent in western China, but dropped by 1.3 percent in central China.

Source: Xinhua

Russia spent 2 trillion roubles (US$26 billion) on defence in January and February alone, a 282 per cent jump on the same period a year ago, data on the budget portal showed, illustrating the spiralling costs for Moscow of its conflict in Ukraine.

Rising military production and huge state spending are keeping Russia’s industry buzzing along, helping soften the economic impact of Western sanctions.

In the first two months of 2022, 525.4 billion roubles of budgetary funds were spent on “national defence”. Russia launched what it calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine on Feb 24 last year.

The data, published on the Federal Treasury’s online budget portal, gives specific insight into military expenditure. The finance ministry stopped publishing individual monthly budget fulfilment data last May, but has now added data for 2022 and the start of this year to the portal.

According to the new data, defence spending amounted to 1.18 trillion roubles in January and 822.4 billion roubles in February.

Russia’s 2023 spending plan envisages 4.98 trillion roubles of expenditure on defence. The data shows the country spent just over 40 per cent of its planned annual allocation for the defence sector in Jan-Feb.

Data published last week showed that Russia’s budget deficit stood at 3.4 trillion roubles for January to April, compared with a 1.2-trillion-rouble surplus in 2022, as Moscow has spent heavily and energy revenues have dropped.

Last year, Russia spent 5.51 trillion roubles, or 17.1 per cent of its total expenditure on defence, up from 3.57 trillion roubles, or 14.4 per cent, in 2021.

In January-February 2023,
national defence spending was 36.2 per cent of the total budget expenditure, nearly double the amount spent on social policy and almost four times more than spending on
the “national economy”.

Source: Reuters

Russia spent 2 trillion roubles (US$26 billion) on defence in January and February alone, a 282 per cent jump on the same period a year ago, data on the budget portal showed, illustrating the spiralling costs for Moscow of its conflict in Ukraine.

Rising military production and huge state spending are keeping Russia’s industry buzzing along, helping soften the economic impact of Western sanctions.

In the first two months of 2022, 525.4 billion roubles of budgetary funds were spent on “national defence”. Russia launched what it calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine on Feb 24 last year.

The data, published on the Federal Treasury’s online budget portal, gives specific insight into military expenditure. The finance ministry stopped publishing individual monthly budget fulfilment data last May, but has now added data for 2022 and the start of this year to the portal.

According to the new data, defence spending amounted to 1.18 trillion roubles in January and 822.4 billion roubles in February.

Russia’s 2023 spending plan envisages 4.98 trillion roubles of expenditure on defence. The data shows the country spent just over 40 per cent of its planned annual allocation for the defence sector in Jan-Feb.

Data published last week showed that Russia’s budget deficit stood at 3.4 trillion roubles for January to April, compared with a 1.2-trillion-rouble surplus in 2022, as Moscow has spent heavily and energy revenues have dropped.

Last year, Russia spent 5.51 trillion roubles, or 17.1 per cent of its total expenditure on defence, up from 3.57 trillion roubles, or 14.4 per cent, in 2021.

In January-February 2023,
national defence spending was 36.2 per cent of the total budget expenditure, nearly double the amount spent on social policy and almost four times more than spending on
the “national economy”.

Source: Reuters