WASHINGTON, DC, June 12, 2003- The Multilateral Investment Guar-antee Agency (MIGA), a member of the World Bank Group, and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said today they are backing the construction and operation of a new power plant to help meet Vietnam's need for more reliable electricity.

ADB will assist the Phu My 3 Power Project by providing a US$40 million direct loan and a $32 million political risk guarantee. MIGA will provide political risk guarantees totaling $138 million.

Under the project, a 716.8 megawatt gas-fired combined cycle power plant will be constructed near the town of Phu My, about 75 kilometers from Ho Chi Minh City. It will comprise two gas turbines, two heat-recovery and steam generation systems, and one steam turbine.

The plant, expected to operate commercially by February 2004, is covered by a 23-year build-operate-transfer (BOT) contract between the Ministry of Industry and Phu My 3 BOT Power Company Ltd., a company set up in Vietnam by BP Holdings BV (a subsidiary of BP plc), SembCorp Utili-ties Private Limited, and the consortium of Kyushu Electric Power Co., Inc. and Nissho Iwai Corporation.

Electricity of Vietnam will buy the power plant's output under a power purchase agreement for 20 years. Vietnam Oil and Gas Corporation will provide natural gas for the plant under a gas sales agreement. At the end of the BOT contract period, the plant will be handed over to the govern-ment of Vietnam.

Demand for electricity has been growing by about 14 percent a year for more than a decade in Vietnam. The country's current power supply re-lies heavily on hydropower, which is highly seasonal. Other sources of power, including gas turbine, diesel, and thermal plants, are therefore needed to provide a more reliable supply and meet the rising demand for electricity.

"The project is an environmentally friendly solution to the supply prob-lem. It will feed the national power grid, as well as the industrial and residential areas in south Vietnam," says Kurumi Fukaya, ADB's project team leader. "This will make the areas served by the project attractive to investment, which can spur economic growth and help reduce poverty."

The total cost of the project will be $412 million, to be funded by share-holders ($103 million), Japan Bank for International Cooperation ($99 mil-lion), ADB ($40 million), and a syndicate of international commercial lenders ($170 million). This represents one of the largest foreign direct investments ever to go into Vietnam.

The ADB political risk guarantee covers $32 million of the commercial debt. MIGA will guarantee $90 million of the project's commercial debt and swap breakage, and provide an additional $48 million in guarantees to cover Singapore-based SembCorp Utilities Private Limited's equity. The project will also benefit from political risk cover from Nippon Export and Investment Insurance.

"Phu My 3 will bring many development benefits to the country," says Philippe Valahu, MIGA's manager for Asia. "In addition to creating jobs and procuring most of the construction materials locally, the reliable sup-ply of electricity is expected to help attract additional private capital in-vestment flows for further infrastructure development in the country."

The undertaking represents the first project-specific collaboration be-tween ADB and MIGA, following the signing of a Memorandum of Un-derstanding between the two institutions in September 2002.

"We have worked very closely with the ADB to harmonize our insurance policies, pool resources, and share information," says Motomichi Ikawa, MIGA's executive vice president. "We have tried to show the marketplace that several multilateral development banks can work efficiently in the same deal, and that it can be a very positive experience. We are looking forward to further collaboration with the ADB on some of the large deals we expect to see in Asia in the coming year."

The deal also represents an important first for MIGA in terms of product offerings. The project debt financing is provided at a floating interest rate, which presents financial risks to the project. To offset the need to either buy an interest rate cap, or to put together a separate fund to cover severe interest rate increases, the project enterprise chose to engage in a swap that allows it to pay a fixed interest rate. "What's innovative here is that for the first time, MIGA has offered coverage against nonpayment of in-curred swap losses by the BOT company to the swap provider due to cov-ered political events," says Valahu.

ADB's $40 million loan comes from its ordinary capital resources and is repayable within 14 years, including a grace period of up to two years. In-terest will be determined in accordance with ADB's London interbank of-fered rate (LIBOR)-based lending facility.

MIGA was formed in 1988 to encourage foreign direct investment into develop-ing countries by providing noncommercial risk insurance against such risks as transfer restriction, expropriation, breach of contract, and war and civil distur-bance. MIGA also offers investment marketing services to help developing mem-ber countries promote their own private investment opportunities more effec-tively. Since its inception, MIGA has issued 624 guarantees for projects in 85 developing countries. Total coverage issued exceeds $11.9 billion, bringing the es-timated amount of FDI facilitated to more than $48 billion.

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MULTILATERAL INVESTMENT GUARANTEE AGENCY
A MEMBER OF THE WORLD BANK GROUP
www.miga.org

For information:

In Singapore:
Philippe Valahu, pvalahu@worldbank.org, t. 65.63244825
In Washington, DC:
Angela Gentile, agentile@worldbank.org, t. 202.473.3509

For the Vietnamese translation of this press release, please contact Hoang Thanh Ha at e-mail hha@worlbank.org, tel (4) 9346600 fax (4) 9346597 or mobile phone 0903430193.