ADB provides loan for Cambodia to build power lines from Thailand

AP - Friday, February 1, 2008

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - The Asian Development Bank signed an agreement Thursday to provide a US$7 million (�4.7 million) loan to build transmission lines to bring electricity from Thailand into power-short northwestern Cambodia, including the popular tourist destination of Angkor Wat.

The bank said in a news release that the 115-kilovolt power lines will be the first to be privately owned in the Greater Mekong Subregion, comprising Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, and China's Yunnan province.

It is also the bank's first private sector infrastructure project in Cambodia, it said.

The loan, which does not carry a government guarantee, is being made to the (Cambodia) Power Transmission Lines Co. Ltd., a private Cambodian company, said the Manila-based bank.

The balance of funding for the project, which has an estimated total cost of US$34 million (�22.9 million), is being provided through equity and loans from the Export-Import Bank of Thailand, the Foreign Trade Bank of Cambodia, and a wholly owned subsidiary of Gramercy Advisors/Arco Capital Management Family of Funds, ADB said.

According to the bank, Cambodia's electricity supply is insufficient and unstable, as well as localized because of the lack of a national grid. It said the situation deters foreign investment and hinders development.

The new power line, to be hooked up to Thailand's grid at the border, would provide power to Siem Reap, home to the famous Angkor Wat temples that are the country's major tourist attraction, and other major towns, as well as rural communities along the 221-kilometer (137-mile) power line route.

Source:http://sg.news.yahoo.com/ap/20080131/tbs-as-fin-cambodia-adb-electricity-loan-e285837.html?printer=1