A contest on effective energy and water usage and saving idea has been launched among local companies involved in the hotel sector.
The contest is jointly organized by the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and “Mainstreaming Energy Efficiency through Business Innovation Support (MEET-BIS)“ project.
The nation now has a total of 12,500 firms active in the hotel sector, one of industries consuming most energy, especially water, said Dao Trong Tu, representative of Vietnam in the Global Water Partnership South East Asia (GWP-SEA).
The country is facing the lack of water as its own water sources only account for 37% of the total volume of about 830 billion cubic meters at home, Tu noted.
Meanwhile, Vietnam’s average water volume per capita in 2010 reached 9,700 cubic meters, 2.4 times higher than 3,970 cubic meters in Asia and 1.3 times higher than the global number of 7,650 cubic meters.
The number of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) makes up 90% of the total number of local companies and the figure has been growing, mainly in the hotel sector. Therefore, increasingly-rising energy prices have directly affected industry insiders’ business activity.
If each hotel uses energy effectively, it may save VND200 million a year, thus annually contributing VDN2.5 trillion to the local tourism industry.
Statistics by the European Commission (EC), the sponsor of Vietnam in the project MEET – BIS, showed visitors tend to favor those environmentally-friendly hotels. This is the reason why the scheme focuses on supporting SMEs access knowledge and solutions on energy conservation.
MEET – BIS is just one among many projects EC has financed Vietnam to look for energy saving solutions for SMEs in urban areas. Industry players will be assisted to renovate power and water saving equipments and master energy conservation knowledge.
The deadline for corporate participants to submit their ideas is slated for April 9. The contest’s result will be announced at the end of this month and GIZ next month will assist the winner to deploy plan and assess it in either June or late October this year.
