HANOI: The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) yesterday signed an agreement with Japanese Marubeni Company and South Korean KEPCO Company for the Nghi Sơn 2 Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) thermal power plant. The investment agreement was signed in Hà Nội. The two turbines project with total capacity of 1,200MW was approved by the Vietnamese Government, who selected the two companies as investors under BOT following a public international auction.
Located in central Thanh Hóa Province’s Nghi Sơn Industrial Zone, the project will use imported coal for power generation. The project is expected to supply electricity for the economic development of the northern region while ensuring national energy security. Đặng Huy Cường, director of the ministry’s General Directorate of Energy, said the plant has significant total investment of some US$2.3 billion. This was why the government required all-out efforts from the investors to complete the investment certificate and arrange financial resources with international lenders.
“The General Directorate of Energy has committed to closely cooperating with the investors in the upcoming work. We expect that the project would soon receive the investment certificate from the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) to ensure progress,” Cường added. Speaking at the signing ceremony, deputy minister Hồ Thị Kim Thoa said the ministry has managed 18 BOT projects in the power sector, of which, three projects are operational. “The Vietnamese government has always formulated policies to support international businesses and organisations to invest into BOT projects in the country,” Thoa said. She noted that the efforts from the investors, MPI, MoIT, Thanh Hóa Province and relevant agencies would help the project begin construction soon and successfully become operational.
