BEIJING: The Sachal Energy Development (Pvt) Limited has signed a financing agreement with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) for the Sachal Wind Power Plant.

The agreement was signed by Kashif Mateen Ansari, chief executive officer of the Sachal Energy, at a ceremony held in the offices of the National Energy Administration (NEA) here.

The ceremony was attended by Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Syed Tariq Fatemi, Water and Power Secretary Mohammad Yunus Dagha, Pakistan’s Ambassador to China Masood Khalid, chief of the ICBC’s corporate banking division, Jiang Tao, deputy chief of the ICBC, Zhang Wenchao, diplomats, leading Chinese businessmen and civil society members, according to a press release.

Sachal Energy is the first company to sign such a deal under the Pak-China Economic Corridor initiative.

Under the agreement, the ICBC will provide up to $107 million for the construction of 49.5MW Sachal Wind Power Project in Jhimpir, Thatta.

The ICBC is the world’s largest bank in terms of total assets and is one of China’s ‘big four’ state-owned commercial banks.

Sachal Energy, a subsidiary of the Arif Habib Corporation Limited, signed a power purchase agreement with the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority in February 27, 2014. It also signed an engineering, procurement and construction contract and an operation and maintenance contract with Chinese company HydroChina Corporation Limited in April 28, 2012.

The construction of the project is expected to start in April this year and its commercial operation is likely to begin in 2016. The project will annually generate 136,500MWh of clean energy and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 85,000 tons.

The project will not only strengthen economic relationship between China and Pakistan but will also boost technical cooperation between the two friendly neighbours.

Sachal Energy will commission and operate the wind farm on a “build, own and operate basis”.

Published in Dawn February 16th , 2015

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