Myanmar Prime Minister General Soe Win has stressed the speedy implementation of electric power projects in the country to enable people to be benefited sooner, the official newspaper New Light of Myanmar reported Sunday.

Soe Win made the emphasis at a meeting of the State Electric Power Development Project Work Committee in Nay Pyi Taw Saturday.

Soe Win, who is also the committee chairman, disclosed that some major Chindwin Basin hydropower projects including Htamanthi, Maykha, Shweli, Hatkyi and Tarhsan are being implemented with greater momentum.

"On completion of the projects, electricity is sufficient for local consumption and it can also be exported in the future," he said.

According to the report, since 1988, Myanmar has built 39 new power plants including 30 hydropower ones with a total capacity of 605.12 megawatts (mw), whereas before 1988, there were 24 power plants including 14 hydropower ones with a total capacity of 568. 45 mw then.

At present, 16 hydropower projects are being implemented to produce 1,778.2 mw and plans are underway to build 15 more such plants to get 4,316 mw more, the report added.

According to government statistics, Myanmar has a total of over 1,775 mw of installed generating capacity of electric power as of October 2005, up from 706.82 mw in 1988. The hydropower ones account for 35 percent, while the gas-fired ones take 50 percent of the country's total capacity.

Source: Xinhua