ADB Lends US$360 Mln for Vietnam's Power Transmission
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has recently lent US$360 million to state-owned Electricity of Vietnam Group (EVN), to support the expansion program of Vietnam's power sector in the comparatively poor northern region.
Vietnam's Ministry of Finance December 12 authorized the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) to manage the credit, with 25-year span, to conduct a power transmission project.
EVN will construct, expand and upgrade 500 kilovolt (kV) and 220 kV transmission lines and associated substations in the northern part of the country. This will improve reliability, remove transmission bottlenecks, reduce transmission losses, and promote the efficient utilization of existing and planned power plants.
It will enable power supplies to planned industrial zones in the region, thus boosting job creation and other income generating opportunities, and create the potential for power interconnection with the neighboring country of China.
The project covers five years of EVN's transmission expansion program, which needs US$17.5 billion up to 2010 and will not materialize without long-term finance.
"If not addressed quickly and effectively, the deficit will constrain the quality and reliability of electricity supply to rural, industrial, commercial, and residential consumers in northern Vietnam," says John Cooney, Director of the Infrastructure Division in ADB's Mekong Department. (VnExpress)
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