On March 22, Ms. Kristalina I.Georgieva, Chief Executive Officer of the World Bank, visited the Trung Son Hydropower Project (HP), the first HP project in Vietnam to receive financial support from the WB. Accompanying her from the WB were Ms. Victoria Kwakwa, WB Vice President in charge of South East Asia, Mr. Ousmane Dione, WB Country Director in Viet Nam; and from EVN; Mr. Dinh Quan Tri, Deputy General Director and leaders of Power Generation Corporation 2 and Trung Son Hydropower Company Limited.
Mr. Vu Huu Phuc, Chairman and Director of TSHPCo spoke of the progress made by the project and the key activities of the two main programs, resettlement and livelihoods.
During the trip, Ms. Georgieva visited the construction site and the Pa Pua resettlement site of resettlement area no. 1. There she was able to observe the life of relocated people and interact with them.
She was impressed with the improved living conditions that local people enjoyed in the new resettlement areas and hoped that the Trung Son management board would continue to do its utmost to assist local people to improve their lives.
Ms. Georgieva congratulated those involved with the project, saying: “The project has benefitted local people and communities by successfully implemented its targets of increasing power output, preventing floods in the rainy season, supplying water for agriculture and protecting three nature reserves. By achieving this ahead of time, it has also saved USD 40 million from its projected cost”.
She was also impressed with what EVN has achieved in a short period to bring electricity to almost all communes and households in both the cities and remote areas of Vietnam. “The World Bank is very proud to be a reliable partner of Vietnam and wishes to continue this partnership in the future. Contributions from the World Bank do not only consist of financial resources but also in sharing experiences from other countries to assist Vietnam and in learning experiences from Vietnam to apply to other countries”, said Ms. Georgieva.
