Electricity of Viet Nam (EVN)'s Chairman Duong Quang Thanh (right) and Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI)'s President Vu Tien Loc shake hands after signing the agreement. — Photo courtesy of EVN
Electricity of Viet Nam (EVN) and Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) on Wednesday signed an agreement on evaluating the electricity-access index and customers’ satisfaction with EVN’s services.
Under the agreement signed in Ha Noi, VCCI will provide consultancy and information related to responses of the business community in Viet Nam about power supply to improve the index.
EVN will also provide information on the power supply situation in localities and the difficulties it faced in improving the electricity-access index in the country. The two sides will research and prepare proposals to revise regulations and policies aimed at improving the business environment.
In addition, the two sides will co-operate in education and training to improve management capacity to resolve disputes between business members.
The agreement is aimed at enhancing information exchange between the two sides to meet with the integration trend.
VCCI is a representative of the business community in Viet Nam. Over the past years, VCCI has proposed solutions to facilitate business development.
The co-operation will open new opportunities to better exploit the potential of each side. This could help EVN obtain objective information from its customers in particular and the business community in general.
The agreement is considered one of the solutions for EVN and VCCI to improve the business environment and the national competitiveness capacity according to the Government’s Resolution No 19-2017/NQ.
EVN is directly selling power to 24.8 billion customers nationwide. The group has expressed its intention to improve its service, which would be a decisive factor contributing to sustainable development.
It has implemented users’ requirements for electricity access according to international standards, making the index increase from 6.9 points in 2013 to 7.27 points in 2016.
Last year, the average time for power connection was six working days, significantly improving the electricity-access index. Viet Nam jumped from 156th position in 2013 to 96th position in 2016 for the index according to World Bank (WB)’s Doing Business report.
WB also recognised the reduced time for completing administrative procedures for registration to use electricity from 15 days in 2015 to 11 days in 2016.
The transparency of power supply and tariffs also reached the average level in the Asia-Pacific region. — VNS