A research submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business Administration, School of Management

Research Studies Project Report (M.B.A.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2000

Myanmar has planned to develop a large number of hydropower projects to cope with its growing electricity demand. Paunglaung Hydropower Project is one of them. Due to the capital-intensive and complex nature of hydropower project construction, risk and obstacles are inherent in all phases of the project implementation stages. So, the project owner as well as the financing organization has to be aware of the impmiance of risk management practice. As risk identification and risk analysis are the backbone of risk management process. Indepth interviews were arranged to get vital information regarding the Paunglaung hydropower project. The risks were classified into five categories. The Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) was applied to analyze the critical risks involved. Myarunar government has identified financial risks and construction completion risks as the most impmiant risk categories with the more likelihood of medium risk than high and low risk. The investor has identified political risk, construction completion risk, and financial risk according to their degree of importance. The more likelihood of high risk for the investor than medium and low risk was found. The risk management practice was not so popular in Myarunar hydropower projects implementation though it seems to be crucial for the third party, especially for the World Banlc, the Asian Development Banlc, etc. At present, suppliers' credit is the most popular type of financing in Myanmar hydropower projects. Suppliers usually get guarantee from their own goverrunent so that the minimum risk may be encountered.