Vietnam to consider Japan`s nuclear plant proposal

HANOI, Aug. 25 Kyodo -
Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung told Japanese trade minister Masayuki
Naoshima on Wednesday that he will give positive consideration to Japan's
proposal that Vietnam use Japanese technology for building nuclear power
plants, Japanese officials said.
In their meeting in Hanoi, Dung praised Japan's nuclear power plant technology
and said Vietnam will ''consider the proposal in a positive and earnest manner
for the benefit of both countries,'' the officials said.
Naoshima told reporters following the meeting that Vietnam's ''response was not
bad'' and that he believed the talks were ''fruitful.''
''I want to expect some kind of progress in the summit meeting'' between
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan and Dung, likely to take place in October,
the Japanese economy, trade and industry minister added.
Vietnam plans to build four nuclear power plants by the early 2020s to address
its power shortage. As a Russian state-run company is likely to build two of
them, Japan is competing with France and South Korea for the remaining two
orders.
Top executives of Japanese electric power companies and nuclear power plant
builders, including Tokyo Electric Power Co. and Hitachi Ltd., joined the
Naoshima-Dung meeting.
==Kyodo