China Eximbank provides $10.55 million government concessional loan for Xayaburi Rural Electrification Project

On May 18, 2009, China Southern Power Grid Co., Ltd and Electricite du Laos (EDL) signed a $10.55 million commercial (EPC) contract for the Xayaburi Rural Electrification Project. China Eximbank subsequently issued a government concessional loan (GCL) to the Government of Laos to finance the EPC contract. The purpose of the project was to build 4 new 22-kV transmission lines measuring 323 kilometers in length, 400-volt transmission lines measuring 86 kilometers in length, and substation capacity of 4330 kVA within Xayaburi Province. China Southern Power Grid Co., Ltd was the EPC contractor responsible for implementation. The project was fully operational as of February 21, 2013. It reportedly benefited 51,000 people and 8,000 households in 69 villages within Xayaburi Province.

Additional details

The Chinese project title is 老挝沙耶武里省农村电气化项目. 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. Per China Eximbank's policy of allowing borrowers to use GCLs to finance the full cost of EPC contracts, AidData assumes the face value of the GCL was $10.55 million. The GCL was almost certainly denominated in RMB, but AidData was not able to identify the face value of the GCL or the EPC contract in RMB. This issue merits further investigation.

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