Vinacomin withdraws multi-billion-US dollar electricity project
Vietnam National Coal and Mineral Group or Vinacomin is filing for withdrawing from Mong Duong 2 electricity project to invest in other major thermo power projects, the local newswire VnExpress reported on Tuesday.
Mong Duong 2 electricity plant (Quang Ninh province) has a designed capacity of 1,200 MW invested by US’s AES Group in a joint venture with Vinacomin. The business cooperation deal was signed in November 2006 at the margin of APEC Conference in Hanoi. Mong Duong 3 will be implemented under Building-Operating-Transferring (BOT) form, of which 90% is from AES and 10% from Vinacomin.
A Vinacomin leader told VnExpress that the group was making procedures to withdraw the Mong Duong 2 project. “We are trying to invest in some important projects as Hai Phong thermo power project and another one in Quynh Lap, Nghe An provinceâ€.
After Vinacomin asked to withdraw from the project, AES group will sell its 49% stake in Mong Duong 2 project to Posco Power Group and China Investment Group.
Previously, the project had an initial capital of $1.4 billion but so far the cost has been raised to $1.9 billion. Work on the plant is scheduled to start by the middle of 2011. About $1.4 billion will be loans provided from international banks supported by South Korean export credit institutions.
Operation and maintenance of Mong Duong 2 project will be managed by AES and Posco Tower. Till now, Mong Duong 2 is the first coal-fired BOT plant and is the largest private project of Vietnam.