Pressing the start button on the project, Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai said a drastic energy shortage presented a huge challenge to the world and Viet Nam was no exception.

” Viet Nam may see a change in its status from energy exporter to energy importer (by 2015),” the one-time industrial minister warned.

Hai then called for the country to step up efforts to tap all available energy resources, especially renewable energy.

In the national energy strategy for 2020 with the vision until 2050, renewable energy is set to make up 5 per cent of the country’s total energy production output by 2015.

This is to rise to 8 per cent by 2020.

The new IC Energy-built solar panel factory has a design capacity of 120 megawatts annually with all products destined for export. The project in the central coastal province is expected to provide jobs for some 1,000 local workers once completed in the next 12 months. — VNS