KOREAN STAMP OF CONFIDENCE IN POIC LAHAD DATU

By Newmond Tibin

KOTA KINABALU (Sabah, Malaysia), Sept 2 (Bernama) -- The participation of a
consortium of major South Korean companies in a RM280 million (US$89.59 million)
biomass power plant in Lahad Datu, in East Malaysia state of Sabah, is seen as a
stamp of confidence in the state-run Lahad Datu palm oil industrial cluster
(POIC Lahad Datu) project.

“We consider this a stamp of approval by a group of companies with business
interests and contracts all over the world,” said Dr Pang Teck Wai, chief
executive officer of POIC Sabah Sdn Bhd, the state-owned company developing POIC
Lahad Datu, in a statement Thursday.

The power plant is designed to use biomass to produce 23MW electricity and steam
and is the biggest of its kind in Malaysia.

The project was initiated by South Korea-based Eco Frontier. At a
ground-breaking ceremony in Lahad Datu on Wednesday, it was revealed that major
South Korean government-owned companies are among its investors.

They include Korea Midland Power Co Ltd (Komipo) and Korea Development Bank
(KDB). Industry giant, STX Heavy Industries Ltd, is a shareholder and contractor
for the project, scheduled for commissioning in late 2012.

“This is the first waste-to-energy CDM (Clean Development Mechanism projects
entitled for carbon credits) by a Korean-led consortium outside of Korea,” said
Pang.

Komipo President and CEO Nam In-Suk and STX CEO Hyuk Jong Yeoh witnessed the
ground-breaking.

Nam led a delegation to a lunch meeting with Pang and senior POIC Sabah
officials in the state's capital Kota Kinabalu Thursday. They also called on
Industrial Development Minister Raymond Tan Shu Kiah.

Raymond described the presence of Nam and Hyuk at the ground-breaking ceremony
as a sign of how highly the project at POIC Lahad Datu is being viewed.

Komipo is one of the five non-nuclear power companies under the Korea Electric
Power Co Ltd, a giant utility company, listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Komipo’s power generation capacity is about 10,000mw, about half of
Malaysia’s total capacity.

KDB was formed in 1954. As Korea’s representative development financing bank, it
is a leader in the Asia-Pacific project finance market and leader of South
Korea’s domestic capital market.

It has fostered growth and heightened competitiveness of strategic
industries by meeting their changing financial needs.

Even in a country known worldwide as a home to many global heavy industry
giants, STX Heavy Industries Ltd stands out as a widely diversified group with
interests extending to banking.

It made headlines early this year when it concluded a US3 billion (about RM10
billion) turnkey contract to build a 500mw gas-fired power plant and a steel
mill in the Basra region in Iraq.

The power plant at POIC Lahad Datu is licensed under the Small Renewable Energy
Programme which usually approves licences for independent power producers for
plants with capacities up to 10MW.

A company called Eco Biomass Energy (EBE) Sdn Bhd is officially the owner of the
project. The electricity generated will ensure supply security not only to
factories within POIC Lahad Datu, but also to the East Coast Grid to which EBE
is expected to sell its excess electricity, said Dr Pang.

He said EBE has an office in Kota Kinabalu with 12 staff, seven of them South
Koreans, most of whom have moved here with their families.

STX has begun mobilising its staff and machinery to start work on site in Lahad
Datu.
-- BERNAMA