Economic Daily: "Getting Electricity" Helps Made in China Stay Behind, Insufficient Electricity May Become a Weak Environment for "Made in Vietnam" | Electricity | Economic Daily

Electricity is not only the lifeblood of industry, but also a crucial element in building a business environment. Recently, due to the impact of high temperatures and dry weather, Vietnam has experienced severe power shortages, and some industrial parks have been forced to implement alternating power outages, disrupting normal industrial activities. In the long run, insufficient electricity infrastructure may become a weakness for "Made in Vietnam". At present, the transformation and upgrading of China's manufacturing industry is in a critical stage of climbing over obstacles, and it is necessary to continuously improve the quality of the power industry and services to help Chinese manufacturing not fall behind in global competition.

The business environment is a comprehensive reflection of a country's soft power and international competitiveness. In recent years, the overall ranking of China's business environment has significantly improved. According to the World Bank's Global Business Environment Report 2020, the global ranking of China's business environment has jumped from 78th in 2017 to 31st. Among them, the ranking of the "electricity acquisition" indicator has significantly increased from 98th to 12th, surpassing Switzerland and France. "Obtaining electricity" has become a golden signboard for improving and enhancing China's business environment.

The quality of the business environment is related to the difficulty of doing business in a certain place. Generally speaking, the indicators that receive high attention include starting a business, obtaining credit, cross-border trade, taxation, etc. The indicator of "obtaining electricity" is not well-known, but it has precisely become an advantageous indicator for China to create a high business environment, related to production and life interests.

Electricity is one of the most important forms of energy today. To establish a factory, without electricity, production cannot be carried out. Enterprises need to apply to relevant departments for electricity, and the relevant departments will pull wires and construct transformer equipment according to the actual needs of the enterprise. The level of difficulty, duration, cost, and power quality directly affect the level of "electricity acquisition" indicators, thereby affecting the investment willingness of enterprises.

Since the reform and opening up, China's economic development has achieved great achievements that have shocked the world and created a miracle of sustained high-speed growth. China has also become the only country in the world to have all industrial categories listed in the United Nations Industrial Classification. Among the more than 500 major industrial products in the world, more than 220 industrial products have the highest production in the world. Behind this development miracle lies the powerful power industry. At present, China's total installed capacity of power generation, installed capacity of renewable energy, long-distance transmission capacity, power grid scale and other indicators have consistently ranked first in the world, effectively supporting the rapid development of the national economy and the continuous improvement of people's living standards in electricity demand.

With the increasing level of automation, intelligence, and precision in industrial manufacturing, future competition in the manufacturing industry will not only revolve around technological innovation, but also require safe, stable, inexpensive, and convenient power supply guarantees. On the basis of ensuring sufficient electricity supply, our country needs to further improve the quality of electricity and the level of electricity services.

In recent years, the National Energy Administration has promoted the implementation of the main goals and tasks of the Opinion on comprehensively improving the level of "access to electricity" services and continuously optimizing the electricity business environment. Through efforts, the country has achieved full coverage of "three zero" services for residential users and low-voltage small and micro enterprises using telegrams, and "three provinces" services for high-voltage users using telegrams, becoming a benchmark for reform worldwide.

Nowadays, residential users and low-voltage small and micro enterprises with a power output of 160 kilowatts and below have bid farewell to the history of "spending money on electricity". This is another milestone in the history of electricity development in China, following the resolution of the electricity problem for the population without electricity in 2015 and the achievement of nationwide power supply in villages and towns in 2020. At the same time, 31 provinces have fully implemented online electricity services, gradually popularizing the methods of "facial recognition for electricity" and "one certificate for electricity". Enterprises and the public can easily apply for electricity without leaving their homes. Power supply enterprises can obtain electricity demand in advance and proactively serve, and high-voltage power supply is accelerating its transformation from "project based electricity consumption" to "electricity based projects". The power supply capacity has significantly improved, and the duration and frequency of power outages in various regions have continued to decrease. The reliability of power supply in some cities such as Shenzhen has reached the international first-class level.

Although the work of "obtaining electricity" has achieved positive results, there are still some imbalances in the level of "obtaining electricity" services in various regions, and there is still a certain gap in the business environment in some places. Under the requirements of high-quality economic and social development, business entities have increasingly high demands for electricity supply. In the past, running multiple trips and putting in more effort to get electricity was acceptable to everyone, but now people have higher expectations and hope to use electricity well.

Optimizing the electricity business environment is an important component of creating a market-oriented, legal, and internationalized first-class business environment. The relevant departments should make further efforts to make the "long board" longer, benchmark against international advanced levels, deepen the improvement of the "access to electricity" service level, improve the mechanism of government enterprise cooperation in electricity operation, focus on solving prominent problems such as low voltage and frequent power outages in some regions, and leverage the joint efforts of "enterprise action, government supervision, and social supervision" to form a long-term mechanism for optimizing the electricity business environment, so that the overall service level of "access to electricity" in China can reach a new level, providing strong guarantees for economic growth and social progress.

Original question: "Obtaining electricity" considers the business environment