Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai has agreed to hold negotiations with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to look for loans for the national power transmission development project costing $155.63 million. Negotiators will include representatives from the President’s Office, the Government’s Office, the ministries of Planning and Investment; Finance; Foreign Affairs; Justice and Industry and Trade, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), the Electricity of Vietnam Group (EVN), and the Vietnam National Power Transmission Corp (NPT). The negotiation is scheduled to be held within this month in the capital city of Hanoi, the Vietnamese government said on its website. SBV, the country’s central bank, will coordinate with relevant ministries and agencies to carry out necessary procedures for the negotiation with ADB. Under the national electricity development plan by 2020 with a vision to 2030 (or Plan VII), Vietnam aims to raise the country’s total power generation capacity to 75,000 MW by 2020 and to 146,800 MW by 2030. However, a number of power grids across the country are downgraded. Vietnam is experiencing booming economic growth, with over 6.8% GDP growth in 2010. To meet the rising power consumption needs by the industrial sector and the public domain, the government is looking at not only increasing its power generation supplies, but also raising supply efficiency by upgrading its transmission systems. (chinhphu.vn Nov 16)
