Fuente : World Bank
http://www.worldbank.org

World Bank Gives Laos Dam The Go-Ahead

/noticias.info/ The World Bank on Friday decided to support and guarantee the building of a $1.2-billion hydroelectric project in Laos after 10 years of deliberation, The Nation (Thailand, 04/02) reports.


"We have spent the best part of a decade studying the project," said bank president James Wolfensohn, making probably his last major decision before handing over the helm to Paul Wolfowitz. In Vientiane, Laos' Foreign Ministry spokesman Yong Chan-thalangsy said the huge dam was seen as essential for the development of Asia's poorest country. He added that the Lao government "further wishes to emphasize its ongoing commitment to ensuring that project implementation adheres to the criteria laid out in the World Bank decision framework.”


Reuters (04/04) reports that the Asian Development Bank (ADB) also agreed on Monday to back the controversial $1.25 billion Nam Theun 2 hydroelectric dam in Laos, saying it would spur development in one of the world's poorest countries. The decision was widely expected after the World Bank gave its approval last week. The World Bank is providing up to $270 million in loans and risk guarantees for the project, due to be completed in 2009. The 1,070 megawatt project needed risk guarantees from the ADB and World Bank before loans could be secured from commercial lenders. "They were critical for the process to go on. They gave the political risk guarantees and a lot of lenders were looking for that approval," Ludovic Delplanque, an adviser to the project company, Nam Theun 2 Power Co Ltd, said.


The Thai News Service (04/04) reports that Nam Theun 2 is the biggest single project undertaken in Laos, and is expected to provide the country with up to $150 million in additional annual revenue. Most of the electricity generated would be sold to neighboring Thailand. It is the first major hydro power project approved by the WB in a decade and the first venture following a 2000 watershed report by the independent World Commission on Dams setting criteria for big energy and water projects.


Reuters (04/01) meanwhile notes that the US abstention in a World Bank vote to back the $1.2 billion dam in Laos stemmed from concerns about environmental and social risks, the Treasury Department said on Friday. Treasury spokesman Tony Fratto also cited concerns about the macroeconomic conditions of Laos, one of the world's poorest countries, and whether proper recourse measures were in place if the project were not implemented as planned. The environmental assessment process, which was a main target of opponents of the dam, "ran afoul of US legislation," Fratto added. The law requires the US executive directors at multilateral financial institutions not vote in favor of projects without comprehensive environmental assessments and analyses of alternatives.


Agence France Presse, Le Figaro, Les Echos (France, 04/04), Libération (France, 04/02), Frankfurter Rundschau, Die Tageszeitung (Germany, 04/02), St. Galler Tagblatt, Tages Anzeiger (Switzerland, 04/02) also report of the World Bank board approval for the Nam Theun 2 project.
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