Sembcorp Industries has landed its first deal in Myanmar - a contract to develop a gas-fired power plant.

The US$300 million (S$422 million) project, which will be the nation's largest privately developed gas-fired power plant, will sell electricity to the state-owned utility when completed by 2018.

The plant, in central Myanmar near Mandalay, will deliver 225 megawatts of capacity, enough to power more than 400,000 four-room Housing Board flats for a year.

The Sembcorp Industries wholly owned unit, Sembcorp Utilities, signed the agreement with Myanmar's Department of Electric Power Planning yesterday.

It was awarded the project in April after winning a competitive tender in an international bidding process called by the Myanmar government, which was advised by International Finance Corporation of the World Bank Group.

"This new facility will provide a reliable source of power, which is integral to the country's economic development," said Mr Tan Cheng Guan, executive vice-president and head of group business development and commercial at Sembcorp Industries.

"It gives us a foothold to potentially develop other businesses in the country, such as water and urban development."

The plant will use the most efficient technologies to maximise power output while minimising emissions, said Sembcorp yesterday.

A project company, Sembcorp Myingyan Power Company, has been incorporated in Myanmar to build the plant.

Sembcorp owns an 80 per cent stake in the entity while its partner MMID Utilities holds the rest.

Myanmar has one of the lowest electrification rates in the world and the lowest among Asean countries. Only 33 per cent of the country's 50 million people have access to electricity, according to World Bank statistics.

Electricity demand is expected to increase at a compounded annual growth rate of 13 per cent over the next 15 years, according to government estimates.

Sembcorp's stock gained five cents yesterday to close at $3.15.