Vietnamese enterprises must hold at least 5% of offshore wind power projects

Offshore wind power projects in Vietnam must have the participation of domestic enterprises with at least 5% of chartered capital or voting shares of the company that implements such projects.

The "domestic enterprises" must be wholly state-owned enterprises (SOEs) or firms with SOEs holding more than a 50% stake.

The above regulations are mentioned in the government's Decree 58/2025 on renewable and new energy, effective from March 3, 2025.

Another requirement for foreign investors is that they must have experience in investing and developing at least one offshore wind power project that is operational in Vietnam or in the world.

“Experience” includes direct investment, contributing a minimum 15% of the project's total investment capital, and the ratio of equity to capital contribution being at least 20%.

If not contributing capital, the foreign investors must be a unit performing one of the following activities: project management or design or construction.

In case the project investor is a consortium, "experience" is the total experience of the consortium members.

They must also commit to utilizing domestic supplies (workforce, service, products) during their investment, construction and operation, on the basis of ensuring competitiveness of prices, quality, schedule, and available capability.

Vietnam currently has no offshore wind power projects. The country targets to add 6,000 MW of offshore wind power to its masterplan by 2030 and put the related projects into operation in 2030-2035, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hoang Long said last week. The target is 113,503-139,097 MW of offshore wind power by 2050, he added.

German renewable energy developer Pure New Energy's (PNE) $4.6 billion Hon Trau wind power project in Vietnam’s south-central province of Binh Dinh has recently been re-classified as a nearshore wind power project.

Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), a major Danish renewable energy developer, entered Vietnam in 2019 with the 3.5 GW La Gan offshore wind farm project in Binh Thuan province as its first project.