The Australian company Ensham Resources has just decided to pour some US$4 billion into building a 3,600-megawatt thermal power plant in Vietnam’s southernmost province of Kien Giang.
The announcement was made after a meeting between the provincial Peoples Committee and the Australian firm last week, said Thai Dac Liet, chairman of Kien Giang Department of Planning and Investment.
Liet said the power complex, to be located in Binh An Commune of Kien Luong District, will be a 100 per cent foreign-invested project under the BOT (build-operate-transfer) or BOO (Build-operate-own) form.
The plant aims to ensure sufficient power for the province and particularly for Phu Quoc Island, which is poised to become a major tourist attraction, Liet said.
The Australian firm’s capital increase for the project would increase plant capacity from 1,000 MW to 3,600 MW.
Last year, Kien Giang authority allowed the Australian company to build a 1,000 MW power plant on Hon Chong Island with initial investment of US$1 billion.
Liet added that 349 hectares of land in Binh An Commune have been earmarked for the power project.
The project, which will be carried out in three phases, is scheduled to begin in late 2008 in the first phase and be completed four years later, said Tran Dat Duy, general director of Kien Dung Co. Ltd. the consultant and coal agent of Ensham in Vietnam.
Esham will also invest US$400 million to build a deepwater port in Kien Luong District to provide coal transportation from Australia to Vietnam to fuel the thermo-power plant, estimated at 10 million tons a year.
Duy added that Ensham would invite other international energy companies to work as partners in the project. (VNA)
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