Electric vote

The National Assembly yesterday voted to approve a power purchase agreement allowing a company part-owned by a ruling party senator to sub-invest in an existing deal to build a 270-megawatt power plant in Sihanoukville.

Opposition Sam Rainsy Party MPs voted against the agreement, which guarantees that the government will purchase electricity produced from a 135-megawatt generator within the plant for a period of 30 years.

Ith Praing, a secretary of state at the Ministry of Industry Mines and Energy, said Cambodia International Investment Development Group had now been granted authorisation to expand its original sub-investment in the project from 100 to 135 megawatts.

CIIDG is jointly owned by Senator Lao Meng Khin and his Chinese partner Mongolia Erdos Hongjun Holding Group.

SRP lawmaker Son Chhay said the agreement, which exempts CIIDG from Value Added Tax for nine years of the contract and included no Environmental Impact Assessment, was lacking in transparency.