SAARC energy center to be set up
Staff Report

ISLAMABAD—The SAARC Energy Ministers Saturday agreed to establish the SAARC Energy Centre in Pakistan. They also agreed on promotion of cooperation in the energy sector which would cover planning, development, trade, transportation, information exchange, capacity building, encouraging private sector participation and international cooperation.
India offered to host the next SAARC Energy Ministers Meeting in the last quarter of 2006. This was stated in a Joint Statement issued at the concluding session of the first one-day SAARC Energy Ministers meeting chaired by the Federal Minister for Petroleum & Natural Resources Amanullah Khan Jadoon who has been elected Chairman.
The joint statement acknowledged that cooperation among Member States in ensuring and developing sources of energy is a basic component for strengthening economic resilience of the individual Member States as well as the economic growth and prosperity of the SAARC region.
The statement appreciated the work accomplished by the SAARC Working Group on Energy in its two meetings (Islamabad, 15-16 June and 16-17 December 2004) and the Meeting of Senior Officials  preceding the Meeting of SAARC Energy Ministers (Islamabad 29-30 September 2005).
The SAARC Member States will cooperate in the development and use of all forms of energy, whether commercial, non-commercial, renewable or non-renewable, in modalities that may be appropriately designed by them for this purpose so as to achieve the objective of creating an Energy Ring in South Asia, the statement added.
Petroleum Minister Amanullah Khan Jadoon thanked the SAARC Energy Ministers for providing an opportunity to meet in Islamabad and hoped that the First Meeting of SAARC Energy Ministers will reinvigorate South Asian Regional Cooperation in the Energy Sector in accordance with the vision of their leaders. Speaker National Assembly, Ch. Amir Hussain Saturday said the proper energy exploration efforts in tapping indigenous resources coupled with talented and hard working people can help improve the prospects of SAARC region development. “Our region has huge unexplored and untapped energy resources and our pledge to boost cooperation would help realize progress and prosperity of the people of South Asia,” he said while inaugurating the first meeting of SAARC Energy Ministers hosted by Pakistan.
The Speaker said in the present day world, national prosperity depends upon international and regional cooperation especially with immediate neighbours. Common objectives, resource inter dependence, economic complementarities and cultural affinities have led the nations to strengthen their links with regional partners, he said and added regional identity has become a symbol of prosperity and growth.
Ch. Amir Hussain said in the next 15 years, South Asia energy demand will increase from 500 million tonnes of oil equivalent to 1,500 million tonnes of oil equivalent per year and added despite best efforts to utilize renewable sources of energy, we will have to depend upon conventional energy resources in the next decades.
On the other hand, he said, “our energy systems in South Asia are constrained to meet the challenges of providing the required energy supplies for the current and anticipated high economic growth.” The NA Speaker said although our per capita commercial energy consumption is very low in the range of 300 kilograms per year we find it difficult to meet supplies even at that level.