VIENTIANE, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- The Confucius Institute at the National University of Laos (NUOL) is becoming increasingly popular among Lao students amid the growing need for Chinese speakers in the workforce.

In 2020, the institute is planning to enroll 1,648 students and on Tuesday it announced it was ready to receive applications for Chinese language classes in the mornings, afternoons and evenings, local daily Vientiane Times reported on Wednesday.

A handover ceremony of a new compound for the Confucius Institute at the NUOL was held in June 2019 after the construction of a building began on September 1, 2017, and was completed within 20 months in April, according to the report.

The building has full facilities for lecturers and students, such as offices, lecturer apartments and a club. The institute can accommodate over 5,000 students and covers an area of 15,600 square meters.

The Confucius Institute aims to be a model project in promoting people-to-people exchanges between Laos and China.

It encourages local people to learn Chinese and study the country's technology to gain a greater understanding of China, while contributing to Laos' socio-economic development, said the report.