Ethiopia and China have signed a $1 billion deal to further hydroelectric energy in the East African nation
Reposted from CapitalFM
Ethiopia signed a contract Friday worth nearly $1 billion with a Chinese energy company to build two transmission lines linking the country’s largest dam to the country’s central power grid.
The Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo.) signed the deal with China Electric Power Equipment and Technology Company (CET) in the Ethiopian capital. More…
Tony Knowles, one of SME Renewable Energy Ltd’s three directors, has lived in Cambodia for the past 17 years. Photograph: Hong Menea/Phnom Penh Post
Reposted from The Phnom Penh Post
SME Renewable Energy Ltd promotes renewable energy technologies and markets biomass gasification power generation systems throughout the Greater Mekong subregion. The joint venture was founded in 2005 and has since installed 45 systems in Cambodia. The enterprise helps companies that depend on costly petroleum find cheaper long-term solutions. Director Tony Knowles talked to the Post’s Sarah Thust about Cambodia’s growing energy needs.
How did SME develop last year?
We can see that more and more rice millers have the money to invest in [biomass] equipment. If you export rice to other countries, which is now a government target, you have to somehow reduce production costs or your milled rice will be too expensive to compete with other countries. More…
Private Investment on the rise for Myanmar
In a country where most investments go to lucrative mining, hydropower and oil and gas, private investment worth 133 billion kyats (US$156.5m) has been put into transportation, manufacturing, farming and others within a month. More…
Reposted from Reuters
Feb 15 (Reuters) – Cambodia’s parliament approved on Friday a $781-million guarantee for the purchase of electricity generated by a controversial hydropower dam that activists say could damage thousands of livelihoods and trigger a food security crisis.
The government says the Lower Sesan 2 dam will transform the energy sector and it sought house approval to guarantee state-owned Electricite du Cambodge’s (EDC) commitment to the 400-megawatt project, which one environmental group described as “one of the worst proposed dams” in the lower Mekong basin. More…
Ethiopia, whose economy grew 8.5% in 2012, is promoting investment in infrastructure, natural resources, and agro-processing
Reposted from Bloomberg
By William Davison
Ethiopia’s government plans to attract more foreign investment and boost domestic savings as it struggles to finance infrastructure and other development projects, State Minister of Finance Abraham Tekeste said.
The government is seeking “concessional loans” from development banks for roads and power lines and is “aggressively promoting” investment from Europe and the Middle East, Abraham said in an interview in the capital, Addis Ababa. Natural resources, improving infrastructure and cheap labor and power mean there are “bankable” opportunities in areas such as chemicals and agro-processing, he said. More…
Since the civil war ended in 2009, Sri Lanka has emerged as one of Asia’s fastest growing economies
By John Enos
Since Sri Lanka’s 26-year civil war against the Tamil Tigers came to an end in 2009, the South Asian nation of 20 million has experienced impressive growth due to a rise in tourism and its strategic position along one of the busiest international shipping lanes in the world. The US $64 billion economy is propelled by tourism, remittances, tea, textiles, and agriculture. Sri Lanka’s GDP, which grew at 8% in 2010 and 8.3% in 2011, slowed down to 6.5% in 2012 due to the country’s balance of payments predicament and the sluggish performance of the global economy. However, 7.5% growth is projected in 2013 and last year’s contraction will be ameliorated as tourist arrivals surge, large-scale infrastructure and port projects near completion, and Western demand for Sri Lanka’s exports strengthens. Matching the country’s solid GDP growth are its improvements in corporate governance. Sri Lanka was ranked as the second most improved country in the world in ease of doing business in the World Bank’s Doing Business 2013 report, the first time in seven years that a South Asian economy gained such an accolade.
This article is an excerpt from Leopard Asia Frontier Fund’s upcoming January 2013 newsletter. You can subscribe to the newsletter here. More…
Due to an increase in number of electric power users the demand has hit 1,890 megawatts
Myanmar will install its first ever 500-Kilovolt (KV) power grid, which extends as 420 kilometers, in early 2013 in a bid to reduce power loss in the country, official media reported Sunday. More…
Reposted from Eleven Myanmar
A local company recently made an investment proposal for two hydropower projects in Shan State, eastern Myanmar, according to the Directorate of Investment and Company Administration.
Rich Yedanar Shwe Myay Company proposed to solely run the two projects in Kokang region, and they have already applied for permission with the Myanmar Investment Commission, who will decide whether to approve the projects or not.
“One proposed project site is near Laukkaing region and another in Kokang. The company wants to run both projects,” said an official from the Directorate of Investment and Company Administration. More…
The expansion of the Theun Hinboun Power Plant in Lao PDR
Investment Outlook
Laos is getting pampered in the financial media with favorable investment headlines and perspectives filled with rosy economic data and statistics. It is comforting to read especially when you have been exposed to recent US and EU investment disaster stories. It is very common to see the headline: “Laos the not-so-sleepy-country anymore” or “Laos is finally waking up”. Sound like a very familiar story? Cautious radars might be going off being reminded of other investments in the region that have gone awry, most recently in Vietnam. More…
ADB initiated only four hydropower projects worth $544.1 million in Pakistan since 2002
Reposted from Business Recorder
By Asma Razaq
The Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) funding in Pakistan’s hydropower sector over the past 10 years is insignificant although it recognises huge investment potential in this sector.
ADB’s website shows that the Bank has initiated only four hydropower projects worth $544.1 million in Pakistan since 2002 although according to one of its report ‘Development Effectiveness Report 2011′, the Bank admitted that Pakistan has an abundance of hydel potential, the development of which has been stalled because of tight fiscal situation and limited domestic and international financing appetite. More…
