China to build giant hydro project in Cambodia

Beijing has unveiled plans to build a £347 million hydroelectric power plant in Cambodia.

China's state-owned Huadian Corporation plans to begin building the 338 megawatt plant this year, the company said in a statement posted on the website of the China Electricity Council.

The announcement followed the signing last week of a financing agreement with the Export-Import Bank of China during a China-Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Nanning.
Cambodia's economy has grown rapidly over the past decade, but poverty remains widespread, particularly in the countryside where basic infrastructure is still lacking.

Apart from the hydroelectric plant, which will be Cambodia's biggest, Huadian said last month that it plans to build two 50 megawatt coal-fired facilities with partner Cambodia Energy Ltd.

Huadian's new energy development division recently signed an agreement to invest 26 billion yuan (£2.36bn) in building five solar projects with a total annual power output of 2 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) in Jiayuguan, Gansu province, over the next 10 years.