HANOI-Vietnam,

needing billions of dollars to upgrade its infrastructure, told foreign

businessmen on Tuesday it would need private capital as well as aid to do the

job.

The vehicle for such investment - especially for costly projects

like power plants - could be build-operate-transfer (BOT) contracts in which a

foreign company installs a plant, runs it for a while and then turns it over to

the host country, government ministers said.

Vietnam issued a decree last

November adding BOT contracts to the forms of foreign investment permitted and

setting out regulations.

Minister presented a list of 12 priority

projects - without price tags - they said would be suitable foe BOT investment

at a seminar in Hanoi attended by about 100 foreign companies.

They

included four power stations, four highway bridges, a six-lane highway and three

water or waste-disposal projects.

Vietnam's chief investment watchdog,

Dau Ngoc Xuan, said $926 million had been invested so far in 17 infrastructure

projects.

But this was modest compared with anticipated needs of $5 to $6

billion for transportation and $3 to $4 billion for power generation between now

and 2000.

Xuan, a cabinet minister and head of the State Committee for

Cooperation and Investment (SCCI), said investment under BOT contracts would be

an important source of foreign capital.-Reuters