APPLICATION FOR THE INVESTMENT IN ELECTRICITY ACTIVITIES
Investors who have objectives in running their business in hydro-powers must request the approval in primary data collection from Energy-Mine Sector in order to set their desired project location. Investors must submit the request to PI sectors at central levels or local levels in accordance with the following decentralization:
| No. | Central level to consider the installation of 15 MW(1)and above | Provincial, Municipal levels to consider the installation of 15 MW(1)and below |
| 1 | Hydro-power development | Hydro-powers development |
| 2 | Wind power electricity development | Wind power electricity development |
| 3 | Solar energy development | Solar energy development |
| 4 | Thermal energy development | Thermal energy development |
(1)based on Electricity Law (amendment) No. 03/NA, dated 20 December 2011, in Article 34 Approval of power project size.
Complementary documents for submitting an application
- Application for investment in printed form of electricity.
- Brief proposal about the project development, certified by the President or Director-General of the company (or the attorney).
- Biography and experiences of the company, license or business registration certificate of the company.
- General business agreement (in case of two companies or more).
- Power of attorney for the representative of stockholders or company, in case the person is not at the top position of the company.
- Map indicating the project location.
- Documents about the technical data of the projects.
- Documents about the primary data collection of the project.
- Supporting letter of financial institutes or banks (if any).
- Other related documents (if any).
Time frame of Memorandum of Understanding of the hydro-power project feasibility study is generally 18 months, in which the developers must operate as follows:
- Economic technical analysis Feasibility Study “FS”
- Report of Environment and Social Impact Assessment “ESIA”or Initial Environment Examination (IEE).
Deposit of MOU’s warranties
| Installation capacity | Warranties |
| 5 MW and below | 10.000 US dollars |
| between 5 MW – 100 MW | 30.000 US dollars |
| 100 MW and above | 50.000 US dollars |
Complementary documents for submitting an application
After the investors have completed their commitment determined in MOU (in that, the initial FS, ESIA/IEE have been legalized by the concerned sectors), the investors can propose their request to move to the detailed feasibility study or called the project development step on the basis of signing Project Development Agreement with the Government, In this following step the investors will have to coordinate with Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) in accordance with the details and procedures to be implemented in line with the regulations of the MEM. The negotiation is directly joined with Energy Business Department, MEM. After that, MEM submits the negotiation outcome to Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) for reporting to the Government in order to consider and issue the announcement and issue the letter of attorney for signing to MPI to countersign on behalf of the Government of Lao PDR.
(Remarks: Those procedures may be amended periodically in line with the rules and roles of concerned sectors).
Procedures for considering the approval request to sign Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and Project Development Agreement (PDA)
(After signing MOU/PDA investors can apply for the establishment of representative office in accordance with Article 27 on the implementation of Investment Promotion Law No. 119/PM, dated 20/04/2011).
These procedures are similar to the procedures of project development (PDA). However, before signing Concession Agreement(CA) of the project, investors must establish Project Company to sign Concession Agreement of the project (CA) with the Government, and with the following documents:
1. Contract of stockholders within the investors themselves including any enterprise of the Government in accordance with the agreement appointed by the Government for stock holding in the project/company.
2. Prepare the request, the same procedure as of the application for general company establishment,with complementary documents similar to complementary documents submitting to apply for initial investment in hydro-power sector by attaching the contract of stockholders to the request.
Procedures in considering the approval of concession agreement (CA) of electricity project
After receiving the application for the project company establishment, MPI will request comments from MEM and report in CIP meeting to request the approval, and then the issuance of concession registration certificate based on the regulations, with the following detailed procedures:
After the project company has been established, PI sector issues concession registration certificate (electricity activity) to the investors to enable them to sign the agreement with the Government in order to move to organizing the operational plan.