China Economic Daily and International Business Daily
June 27, 2006

China, Thailand and Burma have signed an agreement to jointly develop the Hat Gyi dam in Burma.

In the morning of June 26, China’s Sinohydro Group and Thailand’s EGAT signed, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to jointly develop the Hat Gyi hydroelectric station on Nu-Salween River. This is the biggest ever joint project among China, Thailand and Myanmar. The Deputy Director of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, Zhang Guobao, the China’s Deputy Minister of Water Resources, Zhai Hao-hui, and the Thailand’s Deputy Minister of Energy of Thailand, Viset Choopiban, attended the ceremony. Sinohydro will not only act as the major investor, but also the major contracter for the design, procurement and implementation works of the Hat Gyi project. Hat Gyi hydroelectric station will be the first of the 5-dam cascade on the Nu-Salween River basin. Its installed capacity is 600 MW, and the project costs 1 billion USD. The dam is located inside the Kachin State of Myanmar, and over 30 km away from the Thai-Myanmar border. The hydropower potential of Nu-Salween River is rich. This serves a cheap, green energy sources for Myanmar’s economic development. With the limited hydropower output in Thailand, which only accounts for 11% of the country’s total installed capacity, the export of hydropower to Thailand also help Myanmar earn the precious foreign capital. Therefore, both Thai and Myanmar governments paid much attention on the Salween River’s hydropower development projects, which therefore attract Sinohydro’s attention. Both governments plan to develop 5 hydropower stations on Salween River, with a total installed capacity of 12,700MW.