PBA Holdings unit appointed consultant to Vietnamese water company

GEORGE TOWN: PBA Holdings Bhd’s wholly-owned subsidiary, PBA Resources Sdn Bhd (PBAR), has been engaged by the Thua Thien Hue Water Supply Joint Stock Company (HueWACO) of Vietnam as its water supply management consultant and training partner for two years.

Perbadanan Bekalan Air Pulau Pinang Sdn Bhd (PBAPP) chief executive officer, Datuk Jaseni Maidinsa, said HueWACO signed a two-year consultancy and training agreement with PBAR.

“The overall objective is for the PBA group to share its expertise and experience in sustainable water supply management with HueWACO, so that the latter may further streamline its services and upgrade its performance.

“The collaboration will also include the provision of training for HueWACO’s personnel at the Penang Water Services Academy, as well as at PBAPP’s offices and facilities in Penang,” said Jaseni, who is also CEO of PBA Holdings.

He told reporters this at the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signing ceremony yesterday.

Simultaneously, he said PBAPP experts and trainers will also visit Vietnam to provide consultancy and training services.

HueWACO is a state-owned water utility company that serves the cities and towns in the Thua Thien Hue Province located in Central Vietnam. Its supplies about 200 million litres of treated water per day to a population of about one million people in the province.

Meanwhile, Jaseni said the implementation of additional domestic water deposit in Penang as specified in the Water Services Industry (Water Services, Deposits, Fees and Charges) Regulations 2014 would be postponed until further notice.

“We will raise this matter with the National Water Services Commission ( SPAN). All domestic water consumers are hereby advised to kindly ignore the notices they have received on additional domestic water deposit for now,” he said.

He said PBAPP would raise public concerns on additional domestic water deposit chargeable to the SPAN. — Bernama