The International Finance Corporation (IFC), part of the World
Bank Group, will loan US$22 million to a private company to build
three small hydroelectric stations in southwest China.
The German Investment and Development Company and French
Promotion and Participation Company for Economic Cooperation, both
IFC partners, would also provide loans of US$13 million and US$10
million, respectively, for the project.
The three lenders signed an agreement on the project, which will
cost 600 million yuan (US$75 million), with the Yunnan Zhongda
Yanjin Power Generation Company on Thursday in Hangzhou, capital
city of east China's Zhejiang Province.
Under the agreement, the Yunnan company will use the loans, to
be repaid in 15 years, to construct the plants with a total
capacity of 78,000 kilowatts, on the Baishui River in Yanjin
County, Yunnan Province.
It was the first time the IFC had provided loans for a clean
energy project in China, said Lars Thunell, IFC executive vice
president.
The project, which began in June 2004, would generate 380
million kwh of electricity every year by the end of 2007, reducing
the county's annual emissions of greenhouse gases by eight million
tons, said Thunell.
The IFC would continue to support China in developing clean and
renewable energy, with special emphasis on assisting private
enterprises, he said.
The IFC is the only arm of the World Bank Group catering to the
private sector in developing countries. It has loaned a total of
US$2.45 billion for 101 projects in China.
(Xinhua News Agency May 12, 2006)