China Eximbank provides $199 million preferential buyer's credit for 88MW Houay Lamphan Gnai Hydropower Station Project

On August 12, 2009, China Gezhouba Group Company Ltd. (CGGC) and Electricité du Laos (EDL) — a state-owned power company in Laos — signed a $206,261,750 commercial (EPC) contract for 88MW Houay Lamphan Gnai Hydropower Station Project. China Eximbank and the Government of Laos signed a $199 million preferential buyer's credit (PBC) agreement to partially finance this EPC contract and project. The PBC carried the following borrowing terms: 2% interest rate, 15-year maturity, and 5-year grace period. The purpose of the project was to construct a 88MW hydropower station on the Houay Lamphan Gnai river — near Kafe village within Thataeng district and Sekong (Xekong) Province — to improve power supply and satisfy demand for electricity. The dam that supports the hydropower station is a rock-filled dam with a clay core and a maximum reservoir of 140,000,000m³. CGGC was the EPC contractor responsible for implementation. Construction started on November 8, 2010. A dam impoundment ceremony was held on October 20, 2014. A project completion ceremony was held on November 14, 2015.

Additional details

1. This project is also known as the 88MW Houay Lamphan Gnai Hydropower Project. 2. The Chinese project title is 老挝会兰庞雅水电站举 or 会兰庞雅水电站项目. 3. In the Overseas Development Finance Dataset that Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center published in December 2020, it identifies the face value of the loan that supported this project as $206 million. However, this estimate appears to be based on the EPC contract value and China Eximbank reports that it only partially financed the EPC contract (with a $199 million loan). 4. On April 21, 2014, CGGC signed an EPC contract with Laos Houay Lamphan Gnai Downstream Hydropower Power Generation Company for the Houay Lamphan Gnai ‘downstream hydropower project’ in Vientiane. This appears to be a separate project with separate financing, but this issue merits further investigation.

Number of official sources

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Number of total sources

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