The government's Standing Committee on promoting cooperation with Laos approved the increase at a meeting on Saturday. 

With the country expected to suffer from power shortages from 2020, the electricity import from Laos is expected to increase beyond 5,000 MW in the next 10 years.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has estimated there will be a shortage of 3.7 billion kWh in 2021, which will peak at around 15 billion kWh in 2023 before halving each year and falling to 3.5 billion kWh in 2025.

Since the country could save at most 5-8 percent of electricity, the only short-term solution to offset the increasing shortage is importing more from Laos, ministry officials said. 

For a long-term solution, they stressed the need to speed up work on major power projects.

The World Bank has estimated that with electricity demand growing by 8 percent a year Vietnam needs $150 billion for its energy sector by 2030.