The credit reflects joint efforts by the French Government and the French Development Agency (AFD) to help Vietnam realise important goals of its 2011-2020 National Electricity Development Plan.
It will also benefit the installation of the 500 kV Pleiku-My Phuoc-Cau Bong power line, the backbone of the network that will transmit power from the central region of Vietnam to the south.
The line, which is 437km long and crosses five provinces and Ho Chi Minh City, is expected to go into operation at the end of 2013.
It will help transmit electricity imported from Laos and Cambodia into Vietnam in the time to come, said Dang Phan Tuong, Chairman of the Board of Management of the National Power Transmission Corporation, an arm of Electricity of Vietnam.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, Yamina Benguigui said she hopes French power businesses will establish a worthy niche in Vietnam’s power projects.
AFD’s committed funding to Vietnam totaled nearly 1.4 billion Euro.