USTDA to fund $2.6mln for studies on Vietnam’s infrastructure projects
Friday, September 19, 2014, 18:00 GMT+7
The U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) has clinched two deals with Vietnamese authorities on funding two feasibility studies on modernizing transit systems of Ho Chi Minh City and developing smart power grid systems for Vietnam.
USTDA on Thursday reached an agreement with the Management Authority for Urban Railways (MAUR) of Ho Chi Minh City for the $1.4 million grant for the study on the establishment of an integrated telecommunications control center for the metro rail system under development in the city.
The feasibility study, conducted by San Jose-based Cisco Systems Inc, will help develop a plan for the acquisition and implementation of information and communication technologies for the control center.
The information and communication technologies applied in the development of the center will help MAUR design, construct, implement and operate 8 metro lines, along with future tramways and monorails systems, said Leocadia Irine Zak, director of USTDA at a press conference after the signing ceremony with MAUR in American Center in HCMC’s District 1.
Though different technologies are applied in the development of those metro lines, like Japanese and European technologies, Cisco Systems’ technologies will harmonize all of them so that the information flow from different metro lines, as well as the information from future tramways and monorails systems, will be connected to the center timely and securely, she said.
The system will partly assist HCMC, Vietnam’s largest city with a fast-growing population, in meeting the demand of its rapid urbanization, she added. Though official data shows that the city has around 7.3 million people, the real number of residents, including those migrating to the city for studying or finding jobs, may exceed 10-12 million.
Earlier this week, USTDA finalized an agreement with the Electricity Regulatory Authority of Vietnam for a $1.2 million feasibility study and pilot project on an automated demand response (ADR) which will be carried out by Honeywell, a New Jersey-based supplier of smart grid technologies and services.
The integration of the ADR solutions into Vietnam’s national grid will enable the Electricity of Vietnam Group (EVN), the sole state-run utility supplier of Vietnam, to reduce peak demand by working with its customers to either cut or shift electricity consumption during peak hours.
If fully implemented by five regional subsidiaries of EVN across the country, wide-scale adoption of those technologies could save 300 MW for the grid and double power generation capacity by 2025, said Zak at the press conference.
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In August 12, USTDA organized a technical procurement training session for HCMC procurement officials at InterContinental Asiana Saigon Hotel in District 1. It was part of a series of technical procurement trainings in Hanoi, Da Nang City and HCMC for approximately 150 public procurement officials there under a memorandum of understanding (MoU) the USTDA signed with the Public Procurement Agency (PPA) of Vietnam on August 5. The MoU it signed with the Vietnamese agency established the USTDA’s second country partnership under the Global Procurement Initiative: Understanding Best Value (GPI). In accordance with this partnership, the USTDA will provide training and technical assistance to help the Vietnamese government implement a newly revised law focused on achieving greater value for money in public procurements. USTDA has so far run 75 projects, mostly implemented by US firms, in Vietnam as an effort to boost the presence of US firms in the industrialization and modernization process of Vietnam which is set to be finished by 2020-2025. |
