An artist rendition of the Kalbar-1 project

A Chinese private enterprise on August 7 began constructing of a coal-fired power generation project in Indonesia, Thepaper.cn reported on August 9.

The first stage of the Kalbar-1 project in the western area of Kalimantan, which will be jointly constructed by the Chinese firm, Taicang Harbor Golden Concord Electric-Power Generation Company Ltd and Indonesia Power, is expected to be completed in 2020.

The project leader said Indonesia’s population is three times that of China’s Jiangsu province, but power generation is merely 56 million kilowatts or half of Jiangsu’s.

Statistics show that 2,519 Indonesian villages lack electricity. West Kalimantan depends on diesel generating sets at high cost and emissions, while electricity is imported from Malaysia at high price.

The project is expected to produce about 1.4 billion kWh of electricity a year, mitigate power supply shortage in the region to a great extent and promote local employment in addition to economic development.

Most countries along the Belt and Road lack electricity, which provides a good chance for Chinese energy enterprises to seek development overseas. Meanwhile, the en-route nations will benefit from advanced technology and job opportunities brought by the enterprises, Zhu Gongshan, the enterprise’s chairman noted.