Vietnam Demands Sufficient Capital for Power Projects

Deputy Prime Minster Hoang Trung Hai has recently asked state-owned commercial banks to ensure sufficient loans for power projects in order to ease Vietnams current severe power thirst, state media reported, citing the governmental sources.

 

Deputy PM Hai requested that banks should immediately negotiate with the state-owned Electricity of Vietnam Group (EVN) to achieve a new and market-d interest rate for previous loans, adding that by this week , if two sides do not finalize a new interest rate, the State Bank will put forward a compulsory rate, the Nhan Dan (people) newspaper reported.

 

The official urged EVN to continue restructuring its investments and facilitating increased domestic and foreign involvement in addition to using the loans wisely and only for effective and important projects.

 

The countrys sole electricity distributor said it needs a total VND832,063 billion (over US$51 billion) to build power projects between 2008 and 2015.

 

Vietnam is predicted to lack between 1,500 MW and 2,500 MW from 7:00 am to 9:00 pm daily in July this year, said the National Electricity Dispatching Center (Ao).

 

The country is fore to lack 8.6 billion kWh of electricity this year. Meanwhile, 32 out of 37 power projects planned for ground broking this year and to be operational in 2008-2010 period are likely to lag behind schedule. (VNS, The People)