A consortium of Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power and South Korea’s Taekwang Power has signed an investment agreement with the Vietnam Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) for a $2.2bn coal-fired thermal power generating project.

Investment declarations by the individual companies have not been disclosed yet.

With an output capacity of 1,200MWW, the Nam Dinh 1 thermal power plant project is expected to help Vietnam resolve its energy crisis.

The project is planned to be developed within the Hai Chau and Hai Ninh communes in the province of Nam Dinh.

"We … believe that this marks the start of a long and fruitful relationship between ACWA Power and Vietnam."

ACWA Power chief investment officer Rajit Nanda said: "This agreement is an important stepping stone for our first project in Vietnam.

"We acknowledge the support of the Ministry of Industry and Trade for this project, and believe that this marks the start of a long and fruitful relationship between ACWA Power and Vietnam."

To be built under the build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis, the project will begin later this year.

ACWA Power has also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Chinese Silk Road Fund for jointly exploring investment and power project development opportunities in the UAE, Egypt and across the region.

The Saudi Arabian firm has also signed a 25-year power purchase deal with National Electric Power Company for the 485MW Hussein combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) independent power project (IPP) in Jordan.

The project is expected to involve a $460m investment and will be replacing the now-decommissioned Hussein thermal power plant at the site.