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Domestic banks pledge 4 trillion VND for power project
Five domestic credit institutions will provide the Electricity of Vietnam Group (EVN) with a combined loan of 4 trillion VND (229 million USD) to finance the construction of the Huoi Quang hydroelectric power plant.
Contracts to this effect were signed in Hanoi on May 12 between EVN and the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV), the Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank), the Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Agribank), the PetroVietnam Financial Joint Stock Corporation (PVFC) and the EVN Financial Joint Stock Company (EVNFC).
BIDV General Director Tran Anh Tuan said at the signing ceremony that his bank will coordinate the loan, of which 2.95 trillion VND (168.5 million USD) will be sourced from BIDV, 73 percent of the total amount.
EVN General Director Pham Le Thanh revealed that his group had earlier signed a contract to borrow 964 billion VND (55 million USD) from the Vietnam Development Bank to pay for the resettlement of local residents at the projects site and purchase home-made hydraulic equipment.
Thanh added that EVN also received an ODA loan worth 100 million USD from the French Development Agency to help fund the project which is estimated to cost a total of 11,082 billion VND (roughly 625 million USD).
The 520MW power plant is now under construction on the Nam Mu River in the northern mountainous provinces of Lai Chau and Son La. Its first turbine is scheduled to become operational in 2012 and the second, a year later.
Once operating at full capacity, the plant will supply more than 1.9 billion kWh to the national grid each year, helping to ease the country’s worsening power shortages, particularly during the dry season.
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