HCM City (VNA) - Finnish companies will continue to invest in thedevelopment of Southeast Asia, including Vietnam, particularly in theconversion of waste to power, according to Finpro, the national trade promotionoffice of Finland. “Finland is a world leader in waste-to-energy technology, and this has provento be a segment of singular interest to Vietnam,” said Saku Liuksia, Finpro’sprogramme manager of waste-to-energy and bioenergy. Saku was the leader of a delegation of 16 Finnish exhibitors to Vietwater 2017expo ended in Ho Chi Minh City on November 10. “Vietnam has long struggled with issues of waste management, with a recentstudy estimating that HCM City alone is discharging 8,300 tonnes of waste eachday, and 76 percent of that waste is ending up in landfills.  “Meanwhile, power shortages and outages remain a part of daily life in thecity, and some leading Finnish companies are at the forefront of addressingboth of these issues,” he said. Since Finpro’s last Vietwater appearance, much progress has been made byFinnish companies operating in Vietnam’s clean energy space, particularly inconverting waste problem into a solution for power-shortage problem. “Finland now converts around 90 percent of its municipal solid waste intopower or recovers it for other purposes,” Saku said. “In Finland, we have atarget to close our remaining landfills in the coming years. We would love tobe able to contribute to Vietnam doing likewise in future.” He highlighted the local efforts of several such enterprises, includingDoranova, which offers advanced solutions for contaminated sites remediationand transforms waste into renewable energy; Watrec, which has prioritised Vietnam for its development of biogas technology; and Valmet, which efficientlycreates energy from biomass and waste. Mikko Saalasti, Doranova’s head of renewable energy, said the company’s wasteto energy project was expected to ‘fire up’ for the first time next month. “Vietnam delivered one of the largest projects Doranova has ever undertaken,with a 35,000 tonne landfill gas plant currently under development just outsideHCM City,” he said. “The project is expected to reduce the city’s landfillemissions as well as provide additional power generation options from wastematerials for residents and businesses in Vietnam’s largest metropolis. Ourlandfill gas plant will further assist Vietnam in reducing its greenhouse gasemissions.” His counterpart at Watrec remarked that the company made numerous visits to Vietnam in the past year, including Vietwater, and has accompanied Finnishministers to Vietnam to discuss waste treatment options that the company canbring to make the country cleaner and greener, on the streets, in the waterways,and in the generation of power.  “We have placed Vietnam at the top of our list of development countries,” saidKimmo Tuppurainen, area sales director for Southeast Asia for Watrec.  “At present, our waste to energy project in Hanoi is commencing. It is a totalsolution project that takes Hanoi’s municipal solid waste, sorts it andconverts it to bio-gas and other materials to be incinerated. “Our projects will not just improve the way Vietnam lives by generating powerfrom organic waste, including that of the food industry and of municipal wastewater sludge, but will also generate substantial and sustainable employment forpeople in and around Hanoi.” Reflecting on the time he spent at Vietwater, Matti Miinalainen, Valmet’sdirector for Asia Pacific & China, said: “Vietnam is developing rapidlytoward renewable sources of energy, and with a special focus in the waste toenergy sector.  We have a superb offering in this space from which Vietnam stands to benefit immensely.  “We are very active in the wastewater segment, an area with which Vietnam grapples, in terms of its treatment nationally. Over the course of my meetingswith customers and the people we have met at Vietwater, a pressing need for thekind of expertise for which Finland is renowned has emerged, and we lookforward to partnering with the nation in the years to come.” -VNA