FINANCING for a US$412 million hydropower plant to be built in Koh Kong province has been agreed, according to lawyers who oversaw the deal.

The Singapore branch of international law firm Herbert Smith confirmed that it had reached the close on the energy plant deal for the Steung Russei Chrum Kraon hydropower project.

The plant is to be built and owned by affiliates of China’s Huadian Power International Corporation.

The firm gave legal advice to the Export-Import Bank of China, which signed a financing deal with Huadian, according to reports earlier this year.

“We are very pleased to achieve the close on a major financing project such as this.

“It is one of the largest foreign investments in Cambodia to date and will no doubt be seen as an important step in the evolution of that power sector,” said partner Richard Nelson in a statement last week.

It added that the closing of the deal was “a noteworthy achievement” and “robust” insurance had been taken out to mitigate country risk.

DFDL Mekong provided Cambodian legal advice, it detailed.

Ith Prang, secretary of the state of the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy, said yesterday that Huadian is building roads and bridges for access to a Koh Kong dam site.

“We are trying to push the company to speed up and finish its construction so that power can be generated to respond to the power shortage in the country,” Ith Prang said.

According to a plan set down early this year, the construction of the dam, which will be able to generate 338 megawatts of electricity per year, will be finished in 2014.

The site of the dam was opened in March.

Last week, Cambodian officials said that they had drawn a further 20MW of power from Vietnam this year to help meet consumer demand.