Vietnam’s Deputy Prime Minister, Ngo Xuan Loc, has called for preparatory construction work on a badly needed hydroelectric power plant in Tuyen Quang province to be speeded up.

Loc wants preparatory work on the planned Dai Thi plant to start as soon as as the dry season begins this year, enabling construction work to start in 2002. This will be the first hydroelectric plant in the region which is desperately short of power. The plant’s feeder reservoir will also help to control flooding in the Gam river.