COP30 AMAZONIA BELÉM BRAZIL 2025 SERIES: UNITED HYDROGEN - Linking China's Hydrogen Ecosystem to Vietnam
Ngo Khuyen, Journalist, Vietnam Business Forum, November 7 2025
In an exclusive interview with Vietnam Business Forum, Chairwoman and CEO Ma Xia and Chief APAC & MENA Representative of United Hydrogen Lanton Tan shared insights on replicating China's hydrogen ecosystem in Vietnam, pioneering in ASEAN and building partnerships that link production, storage, transport, and refueling.
How feasible is it to develop hydrogen ecosystem in Vietnam?
Ma Xia: United Hydrogen delivers end-to-end hydrogen solutions - from production, storage, and transport to refueling and application - and Vietnam's strong solar and wind resources plus a national hydrogen strategy create a solid foundation to localize this model. That said, infrastructure remains nascent and clean hydrogen currently costs about 1.3-2.1 times grey hydrogen, so replication is feasible with phased deployment and Vietnam-specific optimization as scale and technology drive costs down.
How can United Hydrogen pioneer in ASEAN while mitigating risk?
Ma Xia: A prudent path is to start with small pilot projects in suitable scenarios - such as compact production and refueling assets - to validate technology and demand using China's mature supply chain, before scaling investment. Execution should prioritize co-development with Vietnamese partners across energy and logistics while engaging regulators on standards and safety frameworks to de-risk adoption and align with policy roadmaps.
Ms. Ma Xia
Hydrogen ecosystem and Vietnam—accelerating supply network build out, technology transfer, and standards alignment to catalyze an investable, safe, and scalable industry. The objective is to help governments and enterprises co-create a complete hydrogen value chain that underpins decarbonization in heavy transport, industry, and distributed energy.
What are your priorities for partnerships in Vietnam?
Ma Xia: Partnership is essential, with three immediate priorities: develop wind-power-to-hydrogen policies with local renewable players; collaborate with port operators on zero carbon port logistics; and support public agencies in planning and deploying a hydrogen refueling network. These partnerships align infrastructure with real demand centers and accelerate ecosystem readiness while sharing expertise and risk.
What is the ASEAN outlook over the next decade?
ianton Tan: Malaysia has named hydrogen a key lever in its National Energy Transition Roadmap and issued a Hydrogen Economy & Technology Roadmap, with financing advancing large green hydrogen projects and early public transport pilots already underway in Sarawak, setting a regional reference for export, jobs, and emissions reduction by 2030. Indonesia is progressing major green hydrogen plans in Sumatra, expanding pilot plants and first refueling assets since 2023, with targets ranging toward 2060 and strong potential in mining linked industries use, while Vietnam is poised to attract growing investment and launch targeted pilots in logistics hubs, ports, and distributed energy.
Mr. ianton Taan
What lessons from operating 30+ stations in China are relevant to Vietnam?
ianton Tan: Data driven station operations matter. United Hydrogen’s intelligent control platform tracks 12 critical parameters in real time to maximize safety and uptime—illustrated by the East Hydrogen Port in Jiaxing, Zhejiang achieving zero incidents since going live on July 1, 2024, serving 20,000+ heavy-duty vehicles and buses with single day peaks above 2,000 kg. Site strategy should target industrial clusters, logistics hubs, and dense urban corridors for fuel cell buses; cost control comes from localization and optimized equipment utilization; and a structured training pipeline for operators, maintenance, and managers is essential to sustain safe, efficient scaling.
How can hydrogen storage and transport work with limited infrastructure in Southeast Asia?
ianton Tan: Pilot a diversified approach: advance solid state storage demonstrations for high-density, low pressure, ambient temperature logistics with research partners, while validating liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHC) to leverage elements of existing oil logistics for “hydrogen as liquid” transport in suitable corridors. These pathways can be trialed on select routes with local partners to prove technical and economic performance before broader replication.
United Hydrogen was honored with the Outstanding Achievement Award in the“Business for Good” in Singapore, July 2025
How do you balance a global strategy with country-specific realities?
ianton Tan: Plan locally from day one: align designs with Vietnamese regulatory requirements, select cost effective technologies for price sensitive markets, and deploy modular or mobile refueling for initial fleets while co-planning permanent stations with local partners as demand scales. This approach de-riskes capex, accelerates approvals, and matches infrastructure tempo to real market maturity.
What enabling policies can attract international hydrogen investors?
ianton Tan: High impact levers include time-bound corporate tax relief and import duty reductions on key equipment, a dedicated hydrogen industry fund to quicken early-stage financing, priority land access at preferential rates, and robust IP protection to enable safe technology transfer. Together, these measures raise returns, lower risk, and signal long term policy certainty to global investors.
Thank you very much!
