The Government of the Republic of Srpska (RS) and the China National Aero-Technology International Engineering Corporation (AVIC-ENG) have signed the Memorandum of cooperation on the construction of hydropower plant (HPP) Buk Bijela on the river Drina, in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Memorandum of cooperation was signed on July 6, by the Bosnian Serb entity’s Minister of Industry, Energy and Mining Petar Đokić and AVIC-ENG’s Deputy President Yinliang Gao.

The document defines the possibilities for cooperation between the Government of the Republic of Srpska and the Chinese company, Đokić said. He added that signing of the Memorandum will further improve the cooperation with Chinese companies which are interested in energy projects in RS.

“The HPP Buk Bijela project is very important for the energy system of RS and I am convinced that the representatives of AVIC, in cooperation with the representatives of (RS’s power utility) Elektroprivreda Srpska and HPP Višegrad, will find a model of cooperation that will accelerate the construction of this power plant,” the minister said.

Gao said that AVIC’s has full support from the Government of China for the implementation of this and other projects in RS and the region. He added that after this first step the Chinese company is ready to accelerate preparation in order to define cooperation on the project more precisely.

The Government of the Republic of Srpska signed last year an agreement with a consortium organized by state-owned Elektroprivreda Republike Srpske (ERS) and its subsidiary Hidroelektrane na Drini from Višegrad, for the construction and operation of HPP Buk Bijela.

The concession is for 50 years with a fee of 3.6% of income.

The project worth BAM 382.4 million (EUR 195.1 million) on the Drina river in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s southeast is planned for installed capacity of 93.52 MW. The plant will be constructed in the upper course of the Drina river, about 11 kilometers upstream from the new bridge in Foča.

Expected annual production of the HPP is estimated at 332.3 GWh of electricity, with the flow capacity of 350 meters of cubic water per second.