About 6,000 poor ethnic households in remote areas of the northern provinces of Dien Bien, Lai Chau and Son La have been connected to the power grid in time for Tet, according to Electricity of Vietnam.

The 351 households relocated to make way for the Thac Ba Reservoir in Thac Ba Hydro-electricity Plant in northern Yen Bai province also gained access to power.

As of last year, over 96 percent of the country had access to the national electricity grid, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, which supervises the electricity sector in Vietnam.

However, 126 communes across the country still lack power, most of them in remote areas.

At a meeting with the National Assembly’s Ethnics Council last month, Minister Vu Huy Hoang said that improving power supply to remote areas was a major priority for the power sector this year.-VNA