Vietnam needs some 11 billion U.S. dollars to develop its electricity industry in the next five years, local newspaper Youth reported Wednesday.

One-fourth of the money is expected to come from local commercial banks, said the Electricity of Vietnam (EVN), the country's biggest power producer and sole distributor, noting that it has borrowed 15 trillion Vietnamese dong (nearly 943.4 million U.S. dollars) from the banks.

Vietnam is accelerating the construction and upgrading of several power plants, and the implementation of major power generation and transmission projects.

Last year, it started to build Southeast Asia's largest hydroelectric plant with capacity of 2,400 mw in the northern province of Son La. The plant's first turbine is scheduled to become operational in late 2010, the state-owned corporation EVN said.

All of its six turbines will annually generate an average of 10 billion kwh, it added.

Vietnam plans to increase its electricity capacity to 25,000-26, 000 mw in 2010 from 11,400 mw in 2005, meeting demand for its socio-economic development, according to the Vietnamese Industry Ministry.

Source: Xinhua