Resilience strategy for the energy industry in the new normal

Sharing experiences on enhancing resilience, strategy formulation and execution of Singapore manufacturing enterprises, Mr. Douglas Foo, President of Singapore Manufacturing Federation, said, “To seek and create advantages in adversity, the country’s businesses have constantly adjusted to new realities, continually evaluate and revise crisis management plans to prepare for different risk scenarios, look at how to mitigate the potential impact of reduced sales, poor forecasts, and reduced revenue in the new normal, etc.”

“We have taken the “Digital Transformation” strategy as the prerequisite to thrive and focused on diversifying the supply chain by taking advantage of new-generation free trade agreements (FTAs) such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), etc.,” emphasized Mr. Douglas Foo.

Mr. Fidah Alsagoff, Management Team, Head of Enterprise Development Group, Temasek Holdings, spoke at the forum

Sharing on the strategy of navigating through the pandemic, Mr. Fidah Alsagoff, Management Team, Head of Enterprise Development Group, Temasek Holdings, said that Temasek's top priority is to protect the community from the pandemic, followed by adhering to principles such as maintaining resilient balance sheet, pursuing initiatives to reshape portfolio and protecting the portfolio. "Temasek has focused our investment and construction activities on digitization, sustainable living, future of consumption and longer lifespan," added Mr. Fidah Alsagoff.

It is apparent that Singaporean businesses’ risk recognition and new reality adaptation have been helping them to handle the crisis as well as overcome the challenges from Covid-19 effectively for the past time.

Adjusting to new realities

In Vietnam, according to the speakers, we are currently dealing with the fourth wave of the epidemic outbreak on a large scale, heavily hitting production and business activities of all industries in general and the energy industry in particular. Specifically, the development of Vietnam's energy industry in recent years has not been significant and it has been even worse during the pandemic outbreak.

The forum was organized in online and on-location format with the participation of over 50 senior leaders from Vietnamese and Singaporean corporations

Specifically, Associate Professor Vu Minh Khuong, National University of Singapore, pointed out that the energy structure in the next 10 years would change due to the impact of the pandemic as well as the adjustments of policies and sustainability development focus. Based on Delayed Recovery Scenario (DRS), he stated that the global electricity demand would decrease by 6% in 2030 mainly due to the prolonged decline in economic growth, and wind and solar power would supplement to reduce fluctuations in electricity production. At the same time, Associate Professor Vu Minh Khuong also pointed out the world’s energy trend would focus on sustainable and renewable energy with new technology application of solar photovoltaic, digital transformation, hybrid of floating solar PV and hydropower, etc. Associate Professor Vu Minh Khuong suggested that in that trend, Vietnam's energy industry is obligated to decide on an appropriate strategy towards sustainability and green transformation, associated with digital transformation as well as encouraging the participation of the private sector.

“We hope that Vietnam and Sembcorp can join hands to promote the energy transition by improving the efficiency of the power system, renewable energy cooperation, technology and capacity transfer,” said Mr. Wong Kim Yin, President & Group CEO of Sembcorp Industries. According to Mr. Wong Kim Yin, for the past time, Sembcorp has transformed its portfolio from "Brown to Green" and transformed various aspects such as governance, capital, human resources, partners, stakeholders, etc. He hoped Sembcorp's experiences would be valuable for Vietnam's energy industry in the future.