China will export 2.5 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity to Vietnam this year through a network of five power transmission lines, the China Southern Power Grid Company said on Sunday.

The company has enhanced the power transmission capacity to Vietnam by inaugurating a second 220-kilovolt line linking Wenshan in southwest China's Yunnan Province with Ha Giang in Vietnam, said Yuan Maozhen, president of the China Southern Power Grid Company.

"It will supply power to Vietnam for 10 years and will transmit an average 1 billion kwh of electricity a year," he said.

The Wenshan-Ha Giang power transmission line is 300 kilometers long, including 170 kilometers in China, and was built at a cost of 413 million yuan (US$53 million).

The first 220-kilovolt power transmission line between China and Vietnam was inaugurated last September in Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province.

In addition, three 110-kilovolt lines have been in operation since September 2004 to supply electricity to Vietnam by way of Yunnan Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

By the end of March, the four existing lines had transmitted 1.84 billion kilowatt hours, worth US$80.76 million to Vietnam, said Yuan.

Construction of the power transmission network is part of a US$500 million power supply contract signed in October 2005 between the China Southern Power Grid Company and the state-owned Electricity of Vietnam (EVN).

Under the contract, the Chinese company will supply electricity to six provinces in northern Vietnam for at least 10 years.

According to Yuan, his company has signed a memorandum of understanding with Laos and Cambodia on three hydropower projects with an installed capacity of 3.52 million kilowatts. It is also involved in the construction of generation and transmission facilities in Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and other countries in the Mekong River valley.

Cross-border cooperation on the development and distribution of the rich hydropower resources of the Mekong river valley will contribute to the development and prosperity of the countries in the region, he said.

(Xinhua News Agency April 29, 2007)