The Viet-Lao Power Joint Stock Company is developing Xekaman 3 power plant, the biggest-ever Vietnamese-backed hydroelectricity project in Laos, Vietnamese newspaper Young People reported Friday.

    Capitalized at 273 million U.S. dollars, the 250-MW plant in Sekong province will annually generate over one billion kwh once becoming operational in 2009. Construction of its major categories began on Thursday.

    The Vietnamese government has recently allowed a consortium of Vietnamese firms to build Xekaman 1, a 290-MW hydroelectric plant with an investment of 400 million dollars, in neighboring Laos. The plant, capable of annually generating 1.1 billion kwh, is scheduled to start construction in early 2008 and complete in 2012.

    Vietnam and Laos have signed memorandums of understanding on construction of five electricity plants in Laos with total capacity of 2,215 MW and combined investments of nearly three billion dollars.

    The five plants are expected to annually generate nearly 6.7 billion kwh of electricity after their operation.