HANOI, April 9 (Xinhua) -- A private Vietnamese enterprise is planning to pour 6.7 billion U.S. dollars into developing a 4,400-MW thermal power center, the biggest of its kind in Vietnam, in southern Kien Giang province late next year, according to local newspaper Saigon Liberation on Wednesday.

    The project's investor, Tan Tao Group, will contribute 20 percent of the capital, and call for foreign firms to contribute the rest. The coal-fired power center named Kien Luong is scheduled to partly become operational in 2013 at a capacity of 1,200 MW, and run at full capacity in 2016.

    Tan Tao Group also plans to invest one billion U.S. dollars in building a seaport complex in the province to facilitate annual transport of some 10 million tons of coal from Australia and Indonesia to the power center.