Southeast Asia region: Clear demand, but facing implementation challenges

Ⅰ.Smart City Construction: From "Displaying Technology" to "Pragmatic Governance" 

⑴.Current bottleneck: At the recent Vietnam-Asia Smart City Summit (December 23, 2025), officials pointed out that the development of smart cities in Vietnam has still faced challenges of fragmentation and insufficient funds over the past seven years. Key issues include: lack of unified standards and procurement mechanisms, poor coordination among departments, isolated data of poor quality, and difficulty in attracting private capital. 

⑵.Market signals: These bottlenecks precisely indicate market opportunities. Vietnamese officials emphasized that the focus of smart cities has shifted from "technology display" to data-based decision-making and governance. This means that enterprises that can provide data integration platforms, cross-system interconnection solutions, and feasible public-private partnership (PPP) financing models will be more competitive. 

Ⅱ.National-level energy-saving renovation: The refrigeration system becomes the breakthrough point 

⑴.Major Initiative: Vietnam launched its first "National Sustainable Cooling Plan" in early December, aiming to achieve the net-zero goal by 2050 through the renovation of building cooling systems. The plan stipulates that all new buildings must meet green or energy-efficient standards by 2044. 

⑵.Direct demand: The plan clearly states that currently, approximately 98% of newly constructed buildings lack insulation layers. Therefore, insulation materials for building envelopes, efficient air conditioning systems, and intelligent energy management systems will become mandatory requirements. At the same time, the government is exploring new financing models such as "cooling as a service" to reduce users' upfront investment, which presents cooperation opportunities for relevant technical service and solution providers.

Europe and the United States (European Union): Strengthened legislation, with ambitious goals

Recently, significant legislative progress has been made at the EU level, setting a legally binding timetable for the green transformation in the construction sector. 

Latest legislative developments: In December 2025, the European Parliament officially approved the revision of the "Building Energy Efficiency Directive", setting out highly ambitious targets: 

⑴.Public buildings take the lead: All newly constructed public buildings must achieve zero emissions starting from 2028 (earlier than the 2030 requirement for ordinary new buildings). 

⑵.Renovation of the worst buildings: Member states must renovate 16% of the non-residential buildings (including public buildings) with the highest energy consumption by 2030. 

⑶.Eliminate fossil energy: Gradually withdraw subsidies for fossil fuel boilers, and plan to phase out the use of fossil fuels in heating and cooling by 2040.