Investment Board looking for experts to advise on hydro projects
KATHMANDU, JUL 19 -
The Investment Board (IB) has begun scouting for national and international experts to be able to better negotiate and monitor the five hydro projects that it has been assigned to look after. The five projects the government has given to the IB to handle are West Seti, Upper Karnali, Upper Marsyangdi, Arun III and Tama Koshi III.
IB sources said it would be forming three panels—an international expert panel, an international technical expert panel and a domestic expert panel.
According to the IB, the international expert panel will help during negotiations for the 750 MW West Seti project. “Since it’s a mega budget project, a small error may cause a massive loss to the country,” said Radesh Pant, chief executive officer of the IB. “The panel is necessary to ensure maximum benefits during the negotiation process.”
The expert team will consists of lawyers, top engineers, economists, sociologists and project finance specialists, among others. “Globally, an international expert team is basically hired during negotiations for large projects. As we do not have an adequate number of experts, we have to look abroad for competent people,” added Pant.
According to the IB, the panel of international technical experts will help in conducting negotiations and monitoring all the hydro projects. This panel will also have experts from different areas including sociology, engineering, environment and project development.
The IB will also form a panel of local experts which will have representatives from government ministries, departments and other agencies, the private sector and independent researchers. This panel will also help to improve the projects and provide an example of how international experts work on project negotiations and project development. “The overall idea behind having this panel is transferring knowledge from the global level to the local level, said the IB.
According to the IB, the process of forming these three panels and selecting experts have started and donor agencies have been asked for financial support. “As we cannot pay the experts on our own, we have to rely on international donors,” said Pant. According to the IB, the expert groups will begin work by the end of August.
The IB said it would start work on the five hydel projects and begin negotiations with China Three Gorges Corporation (CTGC) for West Seti once these three panels are formed. Meanwhile, the IB has sent the template of the project development agreement (PDA) for the other four projects to the respective investors.
The IB said it had been discussing ways to make West Seti a multipurpose project. “We have been considering aspects that need to be included in the project to make it a multipurpose one,” said Pant, “Once these issues are settled and the expert team has been formed, we will sit down for the final negotiations.”
A high-level official said that pursuant to CTGC’s assurance to help Nepal get a soft loan from the Exim Bank of China, the board would ask for a larger loan. When the project MoU was signed, CTGC executive vice-president Wang had said that CTGC would help the government to get a concessional loan from Exim Bank to finance the project.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
