China's Coal-Fired Power Plant in Vietnam Approved

Chinese government has approved the project of coal-fired power plant construction in Vietnam, the largest invested by Chinese companies in the country.

China’s top economic planner has officially approved a coal-fired power plant project in Vietnam with an overall investment of 1.75 billion U.S. dollars, China Southern Power Grid Corp. , the developer said in a statement on Friday.

This has been the largest project invested by Chinese companies in Vietnam, and is expected to start operation in 2014.

The project, while will be developed under the build-operate-transfer (BOT) model, includes two sets of 600-million-kilowatt coal-fired sub-critical thermal power units in Binh Thuan, a province in southern Vietnam, fueled by local blind coal and will support the electricity consumption in the south Vietnam.

China Southern Power signed a memorandum of understanding with Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry to operate the first stage of Wing Hing power plant in November 2006. Ten months later, China Southern Power, China Power International and Vietnam Coal-Mineral Industries Group had agreed to co-fund the project.

Companies and corporations from China directly invested 74.2 million U.S. dollars in Vietnam in the first half of the year, up 131.1 percent year-on-year, said the Economic and Commercial Counselor’s Office of the China Embassy in Vietnam in a statement on its website.

Vietnam granted investment licenses to 35 projects invested by Chinese companies, a figure that five-folded than that of the previous year. As much as 60.5 million U.S. dollars was involved, a gain of 850 percent compared with the same period of last year.

Full story in Chinese: http://www.bocvip.com/2010-08-27/110506620.html