Phu Quoc island hooks up to national power grid

The power supply from the national grid is expected to pave the way for socio-economic development on Phu Quoc island when an underwater 110kV cable connecting the island with Ha Tien town is installed later this month.
The power supply from the national grid is expected to pave the way forsocio-economic development on Phu Quoc island when an underwater 110kVcable connecting the island with Ha Tien town is installed later thismonth.

According to the Southern Power Company underthe Electricity of Vietnam Corporation (EVN), construction of the55.813km Phu Quoc - Ha Tien cable is scheduled to start on November 21and be completed next January 13. It will cost nearly 2 trillion VND(nearly 95 million USD).

Household customers as well as tourism businesses on the island are facing power shortages.

In areas powered by Kien Giang Electricity Co., household customerspay over 5,000 VND while businesses pay nearly 8,000 VND per kWh,compared with the price of 1,500 VND per kWh on the mainland.

Tran Ngoc Nga, deputy director of Thien Hai Son Hotel in Duong DongTown, said a 100-room hotel must pay 450 million VND (21,000 USD) permonth, three times as high compared with the electricity bills of ahotel of the same scale on the mainland.

Le MinhHoang, director of Kien Giang Department for Culture, Sports andTourism, said that poor infrastructure development, especially shortagesof electric power supply, has been one of the major hindrances facingdevelopment on Phu Quoc.

Hoang said of the 13tourism projects on the island, only Ba Keo Resort in Duong Dong Townwas supplied with electricity from the Kien Giang Electricity PowerCompany.

"This is a major problem that hindersefforts to attract investment to Phu Quoc," Hoang was quoted by Tuoi Tre(Youth) newspaper as saying.

The operation of thePhu Quoc International Airport has helped increase the number of touristarrivals in Phu Quoc by over 30 percent, leading to an overload atexisting hotels and guesthouses, according to Huynh Quang Hung, deputychairman of the Phu Quoc district People's Committee.

Investors of a number of tourism projects licensed in the past fewyears resumed construction after hearing of the national gridconnection.

To prepare for the cable link, a 76.7billion VND (3.6 million USD), 18.2km transmission line linking KienLuong and Ha Tien has been built.

Two transformersworth 156.2 billion VND (7.4 million USD) in Ha Tien and Phu Quoc and a7.6km 110kV tranmission line linking Ham Ninh and Phu Quoc, worth 101.8billion VND (4.8 million USD), have also been built.

The number of hotel and guest rooms on the island could double in twoyears after Phu Quoc is linked with the national grid, Hung said.

He said thousands of electricity poles had been installed on theisland, awaiting the power supply from the national grid to reachhouseholds in rural areas.

Water plant

A project to build a 296 billion VND (12 million USD) water plant onPhu Quoc island has been approved by the provincial authority of KienGiang in the Mekong Delta.

The plant, which is scheduled to become operational in 2016, can supply 16,500cu.m of clean water per day.

According to Nguyen Duc Hien, director of the State-owned Kien GiangWater Supply - Drainage Co. Ltd., facilities of the plant include a16,500cu.m/day water treatment plant and 50km of pipelines.

Hien said 74 percent of funding for construction of the plant willcome from a World Bank's loan and 26 percent from counter-capital of thecompany.

All necessary formalities for the loans havebeen completed and construction of the water plant is scheduled tostart in 2014, Hien said.

According to figuresreleased by the investor, Phu Quoc has a total of 950 million cubicmetres of rainfall per year and the planned reservoirs can help supplywater for local residents' daily activities, production and tourismindustry on the island.

Hien said the existing watersupply plant on Phu Quoc can supply 5,000cu.m of water per day to110,000 local residents and visitors on the island.

Such a small water plant cannot meet the demand in the future as PhuQuoc has been developing very rapidly and will soon become a Category 2city and a special administrative and economic zone affiliated with theCentral Government, Hien was quoted as saying by the Vietnam InvestmentReview.-VNA

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