Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien said that the ministry threw its weight behind a US$4.6-billion offshore wind farm project that a German company looks to build in Binh Dinh Province, south-central Vietnam during his working session with the province’s leaders on Friday last week.

Ho Quoc Dung, chief of the provincial Party Committee, said that Germany-based wind energy developer PNE AG had registered to study the development of the project, with a capacity of 2,000MW, on Hon Trau, an island off the coast of Binh Dinh.

The province proposed that the ministry consider adding the project to the latter’s pilot scheme on offshore wind power development, paving the way for Binh Dinh to attract more investment in the industry.

Dung expressed his belief that the project would give the province’s economy a much-needed boost.

The German developer had surveyed offshore wind conditions in the area and received positive results, Dung elaborated, hoping that the ministry would give the go-ahead to the project.

Minister Dien said that the pilot scheme on offshore wind power development was initially set to have the exclusive participation of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), citing national security as the reason.

The minister suggested that the German project developer and relevant agencies consider collaborating with a Vietnamese SOE to implement the project.

The ministry will seek the Vietnamese government’s nod to allow a foreign firm to participate in an offshore wind farm project in the country on a trial basis.

Data released by the Binh Dinh administration showed that the province is home to 169 under-construction industrial manufacturing projects with a combined price tag of VND77.767 trillion ($3 billion), including 39 key projects worth VND74.710 trillion ($2.9 billion) in investment.

Sixty-four of them are expected to commence operations this year.

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