AZEC-SAVE Platform We will promote investment in decarbonization and energy efficiency in Thailand.

AZEC (※) is an abbreviation for the Asia Zero Emission Community, a cooperative framework launched in March 2023 that was proposed by then Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in 2022 as a concept for building a system to support efforts to promote the energy transition toward carbon neutrality in the Asian region while balancing economic growth and stable energy supply.

(※For information on the results of previous AZEC meetings, etc., please see here.
(https://www.meti.go.jp/policy/energy_environment/global_warming/azec.html))

The Thai government has announced its decarbonization targets of carbon neutrality by 2050 and net zero by 2065, and in order to achieve these, it has set out a number of measures, including a significant increase in the use of renewable energy, strengthening of the power grid, and the use of storage batteries. While the greening of electricity is unavoidable in order to achieve a decarbonized society, in Thailand, where there is a concentration of manufacturing bases for the automobile, electrical and electronics industries, etc., the proportion of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the industrial sector is also significant. In addition, because of the tropical monsoon climate, the temperature and humidity are high throughout the year, and because it is essential to keep air conditioning systems running at all times in commercial facilities, etc., we believe it is extremely important to once again focus on basic activities that have the effect of reducing energy use, such as energy-saving investment.

In the global trend of requiring the reduction of GHG emissions throughout the supply chain, energy-saving investment is an initiative that will lead to increased competitiveness for both Japanese and Thai companies, and it is also thought to be a major business opportunity for Japanese companies engaged in the manufacture and sale of high-efficiency equipment and services for visualizing and reducing GHG emissions.

With this background in mind, with the aim of supporting Japanese companies' efforts by seamlessly implementing Japanese public support from human resource development to technology introduction, matching services, and financing, Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) Bangkok Representative Office in collaboration with the Embassy of Japan in Thailand, Association for Overseas Industrial Human Resources Development (AOTS) Bangkok Office, Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) Bangkok Representative Office, and New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) Bangkok Office to launched AZEC-SAVE PF in April 2025.

We hope you will find the information disseminated through this platform useful.