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China firm to build Myanmar hydro-power plants

The junta will team up with China Power Investment Corporation (CPI), one of China’s biggest power producers, to construct the plants in northern Kachin state on the border with China, the state-run daily New Light of Myanmar said.

“Upon completion, all projects are expected to generate 13,360 megawatts in total,” the paper said without giving further details.

It would surpass power capacity of 7,100 megawatts from Myanmar’s biggest hydro-power project between the junta and Thai energy firm MDX Group.

The MDX project, worth six billion dollars, is expected to be ready in 2012, with 85 percent of the electricity from the plant going to Thailand, with the rest for Myanmar.

Myanmar, one of the world’s poorest nations, is under a series of US and European economic sanctions imposed over the junta’s rights abuses and the house arrest of 61-year-old democracy icon and Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

But the impact of the sanctions has been weakened as Myanmar’s neighbours such as China, India and Thailand which are spending billions of dollars for a share of its vast energy resources.

According to 2006 official figures, 13 foreign oil companies are working on 33 projects in Myanmar, ruled by the military since 1962.