IE Singapore to facilitate $50m partnership for Vietnam water treatment projects

The concessions will last for 50 years.

IE Singapore will facilitate a partnership between Darco Water Technologies Limited (Darco) and InfraCo Asia Development Pte. Ltd. (InfraCo Asia) to work on four water treatment projects in Vietnam.

According to a press release, the projects are expected to provide 62,000 cbm of water for over 500,000 Vietnam residents.

Investments for the 50-year concessions total around $50m.

IE Singapore said the partnership will focus on a Design, Build, Own, Operate (DBOO) model.

Construction for the first project in the Ben Tre province will begin in Q4. The facility is expected to provide 15,000 cbm of water for 15,000 households.

Other projects are expected to start in 2018.

Darco will also work with IE Singapore to move across the value chain with its own ownership projects.

According to Darco chief executive officer Thye Kim Meng, "Through these smaller-scale decentralised projects, we can amass experience to scale up for bigger municipal projects in Vietnam and Southeast Asia."

IE Singapore will also help in enhancing manpower capabilities in project management, business development and deal structuring for Darco's global DBOO projects.

Meanwhile, InfraCo Asia will provide funding for projects to assist Darco in avoiding early-stage development risks.

Darco is also set to ink a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with InfraCo Asia at Singapore’s Asia-Singapore Infrastructure Roundtable on 26 September.