Vietnam’s largest power plant in Laos under construction

Vietnam Firm Starts Building $441 Million Power Plant In Laos Government

HANOI -(Dow Jones)- Vietnam’s Viet Lao Power JSC has started building a 332- megawatt hydroelectric power plant in Laos, which is expected to export part of it electricity output to Vietnam, the government said over the weekend.

The $441-million Xekaman power plant is being built 80 kilometers from the border between the two countries, the government said in a statement.

The plant will sell its output to Laos’ southern region and central Vietnam, the government said.

It said the plant is part of a deal previously signed between the two countries to jointly develop hydropower plants with combined capacity of 5,000 megawatts.

The plant is scheduled to start power generation from 2014, it added.

-By Vu Trong Khanh, Dow Jones Newswires; +84 4 35123042; trong-khanh.vu@ dowjones.com

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Original Sources:

Cached:  http://english.vovnews.vn/Home/Vietnams-largest-power-plant-in-Laos-under-construction/20113/124507.vov

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(VOV) – Construction of a Vietnamese-invested hydroelectric-power plant started in Laos’ Attapeu province on March 6 with capitalisation of US$441 million.

Sekaman 1, one of key projects in the energy cooperation programme between the two governments, is the largest hydro-electric power plant invested by Vietnam in its neighbouring country.

Addressing the ground breaking ceremony, Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai said Sekaman 1 is one of the largest projects invested abroad by Vietnamese firms and described it as a symbol of cooperation between the two countries.

Cooperation in electricity development is one of the key areas in bilateral economic ties between the two countries, he said.

The BOT plant is designed to have a total capacity of 332 MW in the lower part of the Sekaman river, about 80km from the Vietnam-Laos border gate.

Sekaman 1 is part of a project which includes the Sekaman Sanxay hydroelectric-power plant. The two are expected to go into operation after five years of construction, generating a total 1.22 billion kWh a year.

Twenty percent of the electricity will be consumed in Laos while the remaining will be sold to Vietnam through a 500kV transmission line between the two countries.

In addition to the project, the Song Da Corp, the project’s investor, has studied to implement six other hydroelectric-power projects with a total capacity of about 1,400MW which are expected to turn out a combined output of 5.4 billion kWh a year in southern Laos.

Of the six projects, Sekaman 3 is expected to produce electricity by the end of this year, while construction of Sekaman 4 and Sekong will begin by the end of 2011 or early 2012.

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Related:

 

• Vietnam firm begins work on 332MW plant in Laos International Water Power and Dam Construction

Gooooood Morning…Laos?

Cached:  http://randomroger.blogspot.com/2011/01/gooooood-morninglaos.html

Random Roger

The other day the Wall Street Journal had a writeup on the new stock exchange in Laos. Laos as an investment destination? While I’m sure it will be a while before Laos Telecom lists and ADR on the NYSE the opening of an exchange is a start.

To read the article, apparently the thing here is excess hydroelectric power that they can sell to its neighbors in South East Asia. For now there are only two stocks on the exchange, a bank and a hydroelectric company. Presumably there will be more companies, I mean look at that building, there’s got to be room for a few more stocks in all that office space–a little humor.

There are other countries that are also in the earliest stages of capital market formation. As another example Mongolia is a resource rich nation that is drawing a lot of FDI and there are a couple of Mongolian stocks listed elsewhere, mostly Hong Kong I believe, but the actual market is only open one hour a day.

While a Laotian stock may never list on the NYSE it could list in Hong Kong and for all we know exporting hydroelectricity could turn out to be a gold mine for any related companies and should they list in Hong Kong they would be accessible.

The other day a reader at Seeking Alpha left a comment saying that country selection is a crap shoot. If you believe that then these sorts of posts are not for you obviously but I think the numbers are compelling and the mindset of what is being sought needs to be correct.

In terms of managing an investment portfolio with a longer time horizon foreign exposure is intended to offer diversification. My premise here has been that better diversification comes by selecting countries with as little in common with the US as possible; different economic cycles leading to different stock market cycles.

Isolating what countries are least like the US is a matter of simple research; Wikipedia can work here along with a visit to the central bank of web site of the country. From there I would look under the hood of any ETF that might exist and learn a little about some of the bigger companies in the market. Here I am not necessarily talking about analysis to buy the stock just some basics like how many customers a phone company has or how many manufacturing facilities a company have, number of stores for a retailer; that sort of thing. The above also needs to include some understanding of the politics in the country as well.

From that point there needs to be some way of keeping tabs on the country presumably with the intention of getting in at some point.

Looking back at the last decade, I’ve referenced data from Bespoke Investment Group countless times on this point, there were plenty of countries that had normal or better than normal results and isolating some of them was far from a crap shoot. If a country has a manageable debt situation, prospects for growth, prospects for social improvements or has something the world needs (doesn’t just have to be commodities, it could be labor, innovation or other demographic attributes) then at the very least you have a tailwind to the country.

What this will not do is offer shelter during a worldwide panic. As I said before the crisis, some countries can go down at different times or by different amounts thus smoothing out the ride. Of the countries I write about most frequently the best examples here were Norway, Brazil and Chile. To be clear country selection is no substitute for defensive action taken objectively.

From where I sit country selection contributed mightily to whether people had anything close to a normal decade and I believe will do so again in this decade and this means being willing to learn a little about countries you’ve never thought about before, maybe even Laos.

Related reading:

• Even Mobius hearts Laos, Financial Times (blog)
• Laos stocks soar on debut – yes, both of them, beyondbrics
• Laos: contemplating capitalism, beyondbrics
• Laos stock exchange signals opportunities in frontier markets, Mindful Money

Chinese firm building power line to supply Luang Prabang

monstersandcritics.com

Dec 21, 2010, 4:42 GMT

Cached: http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/business/news/article_1607019.php/Chinese-firm-building-power-line-to-supply-Luang-Prabang

Vientiane, Laos – A Chinese company has begun work on a 160-kilometre electricity transmission line to boost the power supply of Laos’ ancient capital of Luang Prabang by 2014, state-run media said Tuesday.

The line linking Hinheup hydroelectric dam in Vientiane province to Luang Prabang, the former royal capital and a prime tourist attraction, is being installed by Sinhohydro Limited Group of China, the Vientiane Times reported.

The project is to cost an estimated 129 million dollars, of which 120 million will be financed by a low-interest loan of 2 per cent per year from the EXIM Bank of China, managing director of Electricite du Laos Khammany Inthirath said.

The state-owned firm will provide the remaining 9 million dollars. ‘The transmission line will be fully installed by May 2014,’ Khammany said.

Laos is a land-locked, mountainous country half the size of France which is rich in water resources.

Hydroelectric power is Laos’ chief export, going primarily to neighbouring Thailand.

The state-run power company provides electricity to 71.7 per cent of families throughout Laos, and has set a target to cover 80 per cent by 2015.

Laos, which went communist in 1975, is ranked among the world’s poorest countries despite abundant water and mineral resources.