Chengdu, China – ‘Good information’ coming from Liberia about the country’s electricity needs and economic potential will attract investments from DongFang Electric Corporation (DEC), says Hu Weidong, the company’s Vice President for International Affairs.
Report by Alpha Daffae Senkpeni, [email protected]
With its headquarters in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, DEC is the largest producer of power generating equipment in the world and has a net value of over US$10 billion.
The firm is present in the energy sector of more than 68 countries including India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia and is also in several European and Latin American nations.
In Africa, DEC is heavily influencing power generation projects in Kenya, Ethiopia, South Africa, Angola, Zambia, and Egypt.
The 1,800 megawatts hydro power project in Ethiopia is the largest on the continent and justifies the firm’s technological capability with the vigor to expand in many countries.
Manufacturing a wide range of power equipment including hydro and wind turbines, solar panel, boiler and electrical vehicles amongst others, the firm says it is confident of expanding to the West African nation which glaring power challenge is slowing economic recovery and growth.
“For Liberia, we think good information about the country’s need in the power sector will attract us to invest in the country,” Mr. Hu said in response to a question about investing in smaller African economies.
“As long as we get more information from Liberia, we will study and make a follow up.”
He said as part of China’s One Belt and One Road (OBOR) initiative which emphasizes infrastructure and interconnectivity amongst developing countries, DEC is willing to hold discussions that benefits both sides (firm and country) and help moderate the financing plans including Build-Own-Operate (BOO) and Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT).
The former is a public-private partnership (PPP) model that gives firms like DEC the deal to build, own and operate facility with specific level of support from the government.
Excluding direct funding, a financial incentive like tax-exemption is given and the right to own and operate the facility independently.
The latter, BOT, is a project financing module with a private firm receiving a concession from the government to build, operate for a stipulated period and then transfer the facility to the government.
Whatever plan that fits Liberia’s power needs, the Chinese power company seems optimistic about forging cooperation with many African countries, but it is also concern about the investment and security conditions and other restrictions that could threaten potential investment.
However, he said they are willing to partner with local companies on the ground and willing to facilitate the funding and implementation of projects.
OBOR has laid the foundation for African countries to benefit from the funding of power projects especially when these countries are interested, Mr. Hu said.
Liberia, a developing country that may benefit from the initiative, is still struggling to restore its main hydro power plant destroyed by the civil conflict.
Although some progress has been made – thanks to huge support from donors – calls for the liberalizing the country’s electricity sector has gained little progress.
Meanwhile, DEC is also confident about augmenting its solar energy equipment production after sealing a recent deal with an American company.
“By next year, I’m very confident DEC will become the top 10 world’s largest solar manufacturer in the world,” said Mei Yong, the company’s project manager.
“Because right now we have joint venture cooperation with An American Company called SunPower, so after next year we will reach the capacity five gig watts power production for the high efficiency solar panel.”
The Chinese manufacturer says it is also making solar cells blending its own research and development project with and German technology.
DEC has already built five solar power plants in Thailand, and says it is holding discussions with several African and Asian countries to expand green and clean energy.
“Hopefully, we can have more projects and more collaboration with Africa and we are discussing with Egypt and have recently sealed a deal with Ethiopia,” he said.