YANGON, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar is making efforts to meet electricity demand in the country and has unveiled an energy bill aimed at curbing extraction and sale of natural gas to be reserved for generating electricity.
The bill, drafted by the Ministry of Energy, is being presented to the ongoing parliament session for discussion and approval.
The bill calls for using natural gas produced inland and offshore from the 2014-15 fiscal year for electricity generation as part of its efforts to supply power to the whole country in more than two years.
Electricity demand in Myanmar is increasing because of economic growth.
Myanmar signed memorandums of understanding with Thai electricity firms earlier this month to develop electricity and with Japan's Marubeni Corporation to launch a feasibility study for construction of a coal-fired power plant.
In January, the Asian Development Bank provided Myanmar a new loan of 60 million U.S. dollars to help improve the country's power grid.
According to the World Bank, Myanmar has one of the lowest electrification rate in the world with only 33 percent of the country's 51-million population having electricity access.
Effective ways are being taken to boost the electrification efforts, including attracting huge investment to the sector.
Statistics show that power consumption in Myanmar has jumped by 33 percent, from 2.4 million households, or 72 percent of the country's total, 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 is also seeking to invest 1 billion U.S. dollars in its power sector, including electricity generation, transmission and distribution.
The bank said Myanmar could increase access to electricity to 50 percent of the population in 2020 with the funding and private sector, and it is expected to achieve the government's goal of national electricity access by 2030.
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 19.284 billion U.S. dollars as of June 2014, accounting for 41.28 percent of the total.
Meanwhile, an electric power meeting is to be hosted by Myanmar on Oct. 21 to explore ways to solve power shortage and expand power market in the country.
The 2nd Myanmar Electric Power Convention will gather more than 250 delegates to discuss the opportunities in the Southeast Asian country's booming power market.
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