Vietnam to build power plant in Laos

Vietnam will build a power plant with investment of some 550 million U.S. dollars in Laos next year, a local official told Xinhua on Wednesday.

The Lao government has recently licensed the Viet-Laos Investment and Development Joint Stock Company to construct a hydroelectric plant with capacity of 465 mw in the Xekaman river, one of six tributaries of the Sekong river, in the country's southern Attopu province, in the second quarter of 2007, said Le Tuan Dung, an official of the company.

Once completed in 2010, the plant will annually generate some 2 billion kWh of electricity, meeting increasing power demand of both Laos and Vietnam, Dung said.

Last year, Vietnam and Laos licensed the company, a joint venture between partners from the two countries, to build a hydroelectric plant with investment of 273.1 million dollars in Laos's southern Sekong province. The plant with capacity of 250 mw will annually generate 1.5 billion kWh of electricity after its construction completion in 2008.

As of mid-September, Vietnam had had 184 operational overseas investment projects with combined registered capital of over 920 million dollars from nearly 40 countries and regions. Laos had attracted most of Vietnam's overseas investment.

Source: Xinhua