Sinohydro's first overseas BOT project begins operation

January 16, 2012
By Xu Keqiang
The Economic Daily
Edited and translated by People's Daily Online

Cambodia's Kamchay Hydropower Station, the first overseas Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) hydropower project entirely funded by Sinohydro Group, was recently completed and put into commercial operation, marking a new stage in the overseas expansion of China's hydropower industry.

The 194-megawatt Kamchay Hydropower Station cost Sinohydro 300 million U.S. dollars over four years of construction, and the company is licensed to operate the hydropower station for 40 years before transferring it to the Cambodian government.

Sinohydro has adopted the creative BOT project-financing model with limited recourse, and used the project's future revenue as collateral, in order to reduce its investment risk.

China to build $540m hydro plant in Cambodia [-Cambodia will pay China in the next 37 years]

BEIJING, June 21 (Reuters) - A Chinese company will build a $540 million hydropower plant in Cambodia's Koh Kong province to help ease a power shortage in the poor southeast Asian nation, China's Xinhua news agency said on Saturday.

The Stung Tatay project, to be built by China National Heavy Machinery Corporation, will take five years to complete. The company will operate the plant for 37 years and sell the power to the government, the report said.

After that, ownership of the plant will be transferred to the Cambodian government, it added.

China and Cambodia have close ties, and Beijing was a keen supporter of the brutal Khmer Rouge regime that was toppled by invading Vietnamese troops in 1979.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

Chinese company to construct hydro-electric station in Cambodia

PHNOM PENH, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- Three BOT (build, operate and transfer) agreements were signed here on Wednesday for a Chinese company to build and develop the Kirirom III Hydro-electric Station in Kaoh Kong to meet the power demand from Kaoh Kong, Kampong Speu and Phnom Penh.

Zhao Shouhe, president of the China State Grid Xin Yuan International Investment Co. LTD., and vice president Wang Hong inked the agreements with Cambodian Minister of Economics and Finance Keat Chhun, Cambodian Minister of Mines and Energy Suy Sem and other government officials.

Charged Affaires of the Chinese Embassy in Cambodia Duan Jinzhu and Economic and Commercial Counselor Sun Weiren also joined the ceremony.

A press release from the Cambodian side said that the project won approval from both governments after more than two years of field research and expert study.

It will enjoy benefits in dual sectors of society and economy, satisfying the Cambodia's power need on condition of safety and high efficiency and generating incomes and taxes for both governments, it added.

The project is located in Koh Kong province in southwest Cambodia, 159 km away from Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, and 120 km away from Sihanoukville, the major port city of Cambodia.

The 47-million-dollar power plant will have an installed capacity of 18 megawatts. The plant will be finished in three years and have 30 years of granted on cession.