Yangon – Myanmar has vowed to double current efforts to meet the national electrification coverage target for all households by 2030, sources with the Ministry of Electric Power said Tuesday.

Effective ways are being taken to boost the current electrification effort including attracting huge investment to the sector, Minister of Electric Power U Khin Maung Soe told a workshop on national electrification program in Nay Pyi Taw on Monday.

According to U Khin Maung Soe, about 200,000 households in Myanmar get access to electricity yearly. However, he warned that with the current rate of electrification, it would take 36 years for the country to supply electricity to all households and it is impossible to meet the 2030 national electrification target.

According to the target, Myanmar needs to supply power to about 7.2 million households which makes up 67 percent of the total population within 16 years.

Statistics show that power consumption in Myanmar has increased by 33 percent, an increase from 2.4 million households equivalent to 72 percent of the country’s total households in 2011 and to 3 million households in 2014.

Meanwhile, Myanmar’s electricity access is expected to improve in the next five years as the World Bank (WB) is seeking to invest one billion U.S. dollars in the country’s power sector including electricity generation, transmission and distribution over the period.

The World Bank stated that Myanmar could increase access to electricity to 50 percent of the population in 2020 with the funding and the help of the private sector – expecting to achieve the government’s goal of national electricity access by 2030.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) also pledged a new loan of 60 million U.S. dollars to be used to improve Myanmar’s power distribution network.

According to the ministry’s latest statistics, Myanmar’s installed capacity now is 4,361 megawatts from all hydropower sources.

Other official figures indicate that foreign investment topped the power sector with 19.28 billion U.S. dollars as of June 2014 since late 1988, accounting for 41.28 percent of the total.