Ms. Kristalina – Chief Executive Officer of the WB
Journalist: Trung Son Hydropower Plant is the first big hydropower plant of Vietnam being financed by the World Bank. Can you tell me why the World Bank selected this project, please?
Ms. Kristalina: Over the past years, hydropower plants have contributed a significant generation output to the national power system of Vietnam. As a result, Vietnam has a very high number of electrified households, nearly 99% of the households and nearly 100% of the communes have access to electricity.
Therefore, the World Bank decided to provide a financial assistance to Vietnam for construction of Trung Son Hydropower Project with the expectation that the World Bank’s knowledge, experiences in implementation of a hydropower power project without causing negative environmental impacts can be shared and applied.
The project has been successfully implemented. Upon completion, the project will provide a significant generation output to the power system of Vietnam, at the same time it will help control floods and supply water to downstream areas as well as protect nature conservation zones. According to a preliminary estimation, approximately USD 40 million can be saved out of the project’s initial cost estimation.
PV: So far, Trung Son Hydropower Plant is in the process of completing construction and installation. Can you describe the WB’s role in the project supervision, please?
Ms. Kristalina: We are continuously engaged in the Project to ensure that the Project will be on track with high quality. At the same time, we will assist Trung Son Hydropower One Member Limited Liability Company in controlling and supervising the entire project construction process. At present, every month we dispatch our experts to the project site for supervision. We will continue our supervision even after the Project is completed and put into operation. In the long run, we will continue cooperation with Trung Son Hydropower Company. The World Bank’s assistances are extended not only to the project construction but also to ensuring the dam safety, assessing the dam’s quality or rehabilitating reservoirs. When building up hydropower dams, great attentions should be paid to the living environment and the people around the project. Therefore, when the dam is completed and put into operation, we shall monitor and supervise the dam’s operation to secure the dam safety and execute maintenance and rehabilitation activities when necessary.
PV: According to new regulations of the Government of Vietnam, guarantee and lending conditions become more and more stringent. So what can the World Bank assist EVN in arranging finance for power projects?
Ms. Kristalina: Currently, we are studying and will deliver the best advises to help EVN mobilize capital from various financial sources. Organizations under the World Bank Group can offer more assistance to help EVN obtain loans without the Government’s guarantee.
In the family of organizations under the World Bank Group, there are one organization specialized in providing guarantees, one organization supporting private enterprises and one organization providing finance to public sectors. These organizations closely coordinate with each other. The World Bank considers putting into practice guarantee instruments in order to assist and enable enterprises to grow more and to be qualified for having access to financial resources without the Government’s guarantees.
PV: For the time being, EVN has been focusing on developing renewable energy projects. What can the World Bank support for this program?
Ms. Kristalina: We expect that EVN can develop renewable energy projects more robustly, especially solar and wind energy projects. In particular, Vietnam has a very large potential for solar energy development.
We has taken into account supports for improvement of the legal environment of Vietnam in the renewable energy field, with the aim of enabling Vietnam to realize their objectives in solar energy development, reaching capacity of 12 GW. The World Bank is willing to support pilot implementation of upgrading capacity of solar energy stations.
PV: Thank you very much!
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Mr. Dinh Quang Tri – Vice President of EVN: Capital mobilization is a considerable challenge to EVN. In the current context that the annual power growth rate is higher than 10%, the demand for investment capital thus is very big. In the coming time, EVN will continue cooperation with the World Bank to seek for capital mobilization solutions that do not require the Government’s guarantees.
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