Vietnam President Urged to Ratify $200M WB Loan for Power Sector Reform

The government of Vietnam has sought an approval from the Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang for $200 million loans from the World Bank (WB) to serve the reform of the country’s power sector which is yet put under competitive mechanism. The loans including financing agreement costing $100 million was signed with the WB’s International Development Association and the $100-million loan agreement signed with International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the government said on its website. The agreements are aimed to help the communist country launch competitive generation market slated to begin in July, to restructure the power sector, boost electricity efficiency, and to conduct rural electrification in the 2011-2018 period, the government said. Vietnam has outlined a plan until 2022 in which it targets to put the power sector which represents monopoly in transmission and distribution. Under the government’s plan on competitive electricity market, the competitive generation market will take place until 2014 from 2005. The second phase will focus on competitive market among power wholesalers in the 2015-2022 period. And the third phase beginning from 2022, Vietnamese power consumers could select their suppliers. (Thoi Bao Ngan Hang – Banking Times June 25 p2, Chinhphu.vn June 22)