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"Our demand is to maximise the mobilization of funding from all sources for the power sector," Industry Minister Hoang Trung Hai told foreign investors the conference. Hai said surging power demand fueled by an fast-expanding economy with consumption growth averaging up to 17 percent per year posed a great financial challenge to state-run power firms including dominant utility Electricity of Vietnam (EVN). EVN could only meet half of the investment need which is estimated at around $109 billion, of which $72 billion are for power generation projects, Hai said. EVN Director Dao Van Hung told investors the firm planned to build 74 power plants by 2020 including 48 hydro-, 17 coal-fired, five gas-fired, two nuclear and two renewable power plants to raise capacity to 81,000 megawatts (MW) from 11,500 MW now. "To settle difficulties of investment capital shortage, EVN encourages local and international partners to finance EVN's projects and to invest in projects under build-operate-transfer and build-own-operate forms or joint venture," EVN said in a statement. It also called on foreign investors to buy shares of local power plants and invest in EVN bonds. The unlisted utility has said it planned to launch its maiden overseas bond issue of $250 million in the third quarter of 2006 to fund new power plants. Foreign investment in the power industry has picked up significantly in the past year after Hanoi announced plans to gradually liberalise the sector and raise retail prices by nearly 9 percent this year to around US5.4¢ per kilowatt hour. Most foreign firms are only interested in tapping Vietnam's coal and natural gas resources to fuel their power plant projects. The Southeast Asian country is a coal exporter and has a vast natural gas reserve off its southern coast, estimated at around 25 trillion cu.ft of recoverable gas, based on Petrovietnam's data. Last November, Electricite de France launched a $400 million gas-fired plant in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, while US utility AES Corp plans to build a 1,000-megawatt coal-fired plant in the country's north at a cost of $1 billion. Hydro-power plants account for 40 percent of Vietnam's around 11,500 MW of electricity generating capacity, while 30 percent is generated by gas-fired plants and the remainder from coal- and fuel oil-fired plants.
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