T.T. Network Infrastructure Japan, a joint venture between global electronics manufacturer Toshiba and Tokyo Electric Power Co Holdings (TEPCO), will operate and maintain 130 kilometres of a 230-kilovolt power transmission line in Cambodia, according to Japanese media yesterday.

The report said that the Japanese joint venture signed the agreement, valued at $14.7 million, with an unnamed Malaysian company. The deal signed by T.T. Network Infrastructure Japan also includes maintenance of two substations and training of workers for a duration of 25 years.

While details about the Malaysian company were not announced, The Post reported earlier this month that Malaysian-owned power infrastructure provider Pestech (Cambodia) Ltd was awarded a $100 million contract to build a 220-kilometre, 230-kilovolt transmission line connecting the Stung Tatai hydropower dam in Koh Kong province to Phnom Penh.

Pestech itself received the contract from the locally owned Alex Corporation – the original firm contracted by the Cambodian government to build the transmission line.

Japanese energy firms have recently increased their presence in Cambodia and last February a fully owned Toshiba subsidiary, Toshiba Plant Systems and Services Corporation, received a contract to build a turnkey 150-megawatt coal-fired power plant for Cambodian Energy II Co Ltd in the coastal province of Preah Sihanouk.

Mey Kalyan, senior adviser at the Supreme National Economic Council, said it was a positive sign that major Japanese energy firms continued to show an interest in Cambodia. He added that the new transmission lines provided another step towards solving the country’s continuing energy problems.

“I’m pleased to see that top-class companies are coming into the country,” he said.

“I hope that energy conditions will continue to improve so that Cambodia can increase investments to the country and improve manufacturing.”

Japanese media reported that T.T. Network Infrastructure was looking to increase revenue by expanding to new markets following its heavy losses and rising costs related to the cleanup of the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster in 2011.