Vietnam has licensed a local company to build a power plant with investment of 273.1 million US dollars in Laos, the biggest Vietnamese-backed project abroad, a local investment agency told Xinhua Tuesday.

"On Nov. 30, the Ministry of Planning and Investment licensed the Vietnam-Laos Investment and Development Joint Stock Company to construct a hydroelectric plant with capacity of 250 mw in Sekong province (a Lao southern locality bordering central Vietnam)," said the ministry's Foreign Investment Department.

Once completed in 2008, the plant will annually generate 1.5 billion kWh of electricity, serving increasing power demand of both Laos and Vietnam, the department said.

The 30-year-old power project will be conducted under the form of BOT (build-operate-transfer).

Vietnam has so far this year invested over 367 million dollars abroad, mainly in Laos, Russia, Cambodia and Indonesia, the department said.

Source: Xinhua