China Eximbank provides $41.265 million preferential buyer’s credit for 230 KV Transmission Lines and Substations for the Yeywa Hydropower Plant Project (Linked to Project ID#34205, 96221, 98029)

On September 2, 2005, China National Heavy Machinery Corporation (CHMC) and the Hydroelectric Power Department (HPD) of the Ministry of Electricity signed a $45.849 million commercial contract for the 230 KV Transmission Lines and Substations for the Yeywa Hydropower Plant Project. China Eximbank and the Government of Myanmar subsequently signed a $41.265 million preferential buyer’s credit (PBC) agreement for the 230 KV Transmission Lines and Substations for the Yeywa Hydropower Plant Project. The borrowing terms of the PBC are unknown. However, it is known that the borrower was to use the proceeds of the PBC to finance approximately 90% of the cost of the commercial contract. The primary purpose of the project was to construct a 110km, 230kV power transmission line from the Yeywa Hydropower Plant to the Meiktila substation and a a 50km, 230kV power transmission line from the Yeywa Hydropower Plant to the Bellin substation. Additional power lines were constructed through this project but their starting points and ending points are unknown. In total, the project involved the laying of 293 km of transmission lines. The project commenced on or around April 6, 2006, and it was completed on May 10, 2010. There are some indications that the China Eximbank loan for the 230 KV Transmission Lines and Substations for the Yeywa Hydropower Plant Project may have financially underperformed vis-a-vis the original expectations of the lender. In 2020, China Eximbank and the Government of Myanmar signed a debt suspension agreement as part of the G-20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI). Under the terms of the agreement, the lender agreed to suspend principal and interest payments due between May 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020 under 3 buyer’s credit loan (BCL) agreements, 6 government concessional loan (GCL) agreements, and 27 preferential buyer’s credit (PBC) agreements (as captured via Project ID#98029). Debt service payments under many of these loan agreements were again deferred in 2021 (as captured via Project ID#96221).

Additional details

1. This project is also known as the Yewa Hydropower Station 230KV Transmission and Transformation Project. The Chinese project title is 缅甸耶瓦水电站输变电项目 or 耶瓦水电站230KV输变电项目 or 缅甸YEYWA输、变电项目. The Burmese project title is အထက်ရဲရွာေရအာဵလျှပ်စစ်စီမဳကိန်ဵလျှပ်စစ်ဓာတ်အာဵပို့လွှတ်ေရဵနှငဴ်. 2. The China Eximbank loan that supported this project is not included in the Overseas Development Finance Dataset that Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center published in December 2020. 3. In 2003, China Eximbank and the Government of Myanmar also signed a $200 million preferential buyer’s credit agreement for the 790MW Yeywa Hydropower Plant Project (captured in Project ID#34205).

Number of official sources

12

Number of total sources

14