WASHINGTON, Aug 28 (Reuters) – U.S. in- vestors will help finance a $480 million so- lar power project in Myanmar’s northeast- ern Mandalay region, which will ultimately provide up to 12 percent of the country’s power generation, the U.S. Trade Represen- tative and an investment manager said on Thursday.
Under an agreement between U.S.-based ACO Investment Group and the Ministry of Electric Power, two 150-megawatt solar plants are due to be built by 2016, most like- ly in the Myingyan and Meiktila districts. ACO Investment Managing Director Hari Achuthan said the group had secured inter- est from institutional investors in the equity component of the deal, worth about $150 million. It was in talks with development finance institutions about debt to cover the balance, he told reporters.
ACO Investment expected the project to cre- ate 400 construction jobs and 100 perma- nent jobs at the plants, one of which would help provide power to develop the Myotha Industrial Zone.
U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said the project marked one of the biggest U.S. investments in the country, which have already totaled more than $600 million since sanctions were lifted. The United States has gradually lifted sanc- tions to encourage political and economic reforms since the military government that ran Myanmar for five decades stepped aside in 2011.
Froman said inverters, used to convert the current from solar panels into a current that can be fed into an electrical grid, and some solar panels used in the project will be made in the United States. Companies have not yet been chosen for the work, Achuthan said.
The United States also signed an agreement to work with Myanmar to strengthen labor rights and improve labor conditions.
