Mr Le Minh Hung, Governor of State Bank of
Vietnam- Representative to the Government of Vietnam and Mr. Eric Sidgwick –
ADB’s Country Director in Vietnam – Representative to ADB have signed the Loan
Agreement.
Making a speech at the signing ceremony, Mr. Eric
Sidgwick said that the insufficient power supply is a big obstacle for the
economic development and it affects negatively all customer groups, especially
the poor households in rural and remote areas. The Power Transmission
Investment Program funded by ADB will help the Government to settle problems by
increasing capacity of power transmission grid to meet the growing load demands
due to the strong economic development.
This 3rd loan project will be to supplement 60km
of 500kV transmission lines, 64km of 220kV transmission line and 3,700MVA of
transmission capacity in the South, adding to the transmission capacity
strengthened in the North and Central area of Vietnam through the past 1st and
2nd loan projects. The increased transmission capacity will help to evacuate
power capacity from power plants block in the West Southern Vietnam to the
national power grid, increase the reliability and stability of power sources
supplied to the large economic centers in the South.
The last project – loan 4 – is in preparation to
be approved in 2017 and will focus pm the 500kV transmission lines and
substation in the South of Vietnam.
In this Power Transmission Investment Program,
ADB supports Vietnam in developing a nation-wide power transmission system of
about 1,200km and 670km of 500kV and 220kV transmission lines and about 10,000
MVA capacity of 220kV/500kV substations. ADB also provide support in capacity
building for project management in EVNNPT.
This program brings in the modern and advanced
technologies for upgrading power transmission grid, meeting the international
standards. This makes a power transmission loss reduction, contributing to
minimizing the climate change.
When being completed in 2020, the Program is
expected to help Vietnam to remove the main bottle necks of power transmission
system in the North, Central and South of Vietnam, pushing up the efficiency of
existing and planning power plants as well as increasing current power
generation in the whole countries, contributing to a rapid economic growth.
An ADB loan of USD 231.31 million is from OCR
source, with a tenor of 30 years, 7 years of grace, a Libor 6 month interest
rate, an interest margin of 0.6%/year, reduction of 0.1%/year. The commitment
fee is 0/15%/year based on the undisbursed amount.
Apart from such amount, a co-financed fund of EUR
65 million is provided by KfW to the loan. Ministry of Finance is assigned by
Government of Vietnam to sign the Loan Agreement with KfW; Vietnamese
counterpart fund is about USD 145 million mobilized from some sources: EVNNPT’s
equity of about USD 115 million and domestic commercial banks of about USD 30
million. The project activities are implemented in the North, Central and South
and in 5 year period (2015-2019).
ADB has a headquarters in Manila, it has a
mission to reduce poverty in Asia and Pacific Asia through even economic
growth, a sustainable environment development and regional integration. Being
established in 1966, ADB will celebrate 50 year anniversary in development
cooperation in December 2016. ADB is under ownership by 67 members, including
48 regional members. In 2015, total supported ADB fund was USD 27.2 billion,
including USD 10.7 billion of co-financed fund./.