Investors unfazed by Vietnamese challenges

Foreign companies are enthusiastic about Vietnam’s LNG prospects, but risks persist

Foreign investment in Vietnamese power projects has proven difficult in the past. But the government—facing a looming shortfall in generation capacity and growing global opposition to coal—has introduced legal and regulatory reforms in an effort to improve matters. The previous, and much-stalled, generation of power projects—many of which were incorporated into the country’s Power Development Plan 7 (PDP7)—were coal-fired and developed under a build-operate-transfer (BOT) model. Vietnam brought a new public-private partnership (PPP) law into force on 1 January, with the intent of boosting private-sector investment, while the PDP8 is waiting on prime ministerial approval. Of the extensive pip