Vietnam needs private power surge
HANOI - Vietnam's private sector, both domestic and foreign-invested, has been encouraged to pour more money into developing power plants and electricity networks.
Addressing the Consultative Group Meeting and the business forum recently held in Hanoi, Do Huu Hao, deputy minister of industry, called on Vietnamese privately owned enterprises to pour their investment into 14 projects to build power plants with total capacity of 10,000 MW and expand the national energy grid.
Meanwhile, foreign investors were encouraged to invest in seven power generators designed to generate 11,000 MW in the form of Build-Operate-Transfer projects.
Investors are allowed to invest in the electricity sector in the forms of independent power plants (IPP), Build-Transfer contract (BT), Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT), Joint Venture (JV) and Joint Stock Company (JSC).
According to Hao, the government has tended to enact policies toward diversifying forms of investment in order to create favorable conditions for foreign partners to invest in electricity projects.
The policy encourages private sector to invest in electricity generators and transmission lines, while the state will hold complete monopoly on electricity transmission and national electricity regulators.
The Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) Corporation has planned complete equalization for the electricity sector in 64 cities and provinces in the 2006-2007 period in order to raise capital for an overhaul of transmission grids.
Vietnam News Agency - December 10, 2005.
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