IFC to Help Vietnam Mobilize More Investments for Power Projects

The International Finance Corporation under the World Bank has pledged that it will support Vietnam’s bid to attract foreign investments for its power projects to generate some 98 terawatt hours by 2010 from 46.2 terawatt hours in 2004 to satisfy the soaring demand of 14 per cent a year from now till 2010, Deputy Minister of Industry Do Huu Hao said.

IFC and Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry (MoI) signed an agreement on this issue in Hanoi July 21, a significant step in attracting capital investment from the private sector for Vietnam’s industrial development, particularly in the electricity sector’s the build-operate-transfer (BOT) power projects, Hao stressed.

 

Richard Ranken, director of the IFC Asia-Pacific Division, affirmed that the IFC would help the Vietnamese Government build an effective framework to increase foreign investment in the electricity sector and other key industries in the future.

 

“IFC is the right partner to work with us to establish this framework in conformity with international practices,” said Nguyen Manh Hung, deputy director of the MoI’s Energy and Petroleum Department.

 

To achieve this target, the Southeastern Asian nation will need some US$3 billion a year to develop new power sources, Hung added.

 

MoI said about 14 per cent of the country’s total power output is purchased from the private sector last year; the figure is expected to reach 33 per cent by 2010.