Russia expects hydropower plant construction in Laos to be agreed shortly - PM

GORKI, September 26. /TASS/. Russia expects coordination of a hydropower plant construction in Laos to be completed in near future and the parties will start work, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday after talks with the Prime Minister of Laos Thongloun Sisoulith. "Promising projects are in place, for example, construction of Xekong 5 Hydropower plant. The project has not yet been in an active phase but we expect nevertheless that coordination will be completed soon and we will be able to start engineering activities," Medvedev said. According to Russian government papers, the construction project of 330 MW Xekong hydropower plant in Laos is implemented by Russia’s Inter RAO Engineering. The project value is about $800 mln. Russia and Laos are interested in developing relations at a political and an economic level and parties have reserves for development of these relations, Medvedev said. "Laos is an important partner of Russia in Southeast Asia. Our relations are based on long-term traditions of trust, confidence and support. We have mutual interest in developing these relations at the political and at the trade and economic levels. Reserves are also in place to develop our relations, despite the fact that the trade turnover between countries is rather modest so far," he added. Read more