By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Nov. 21: Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Barshaman Pun has stressed the need of energy for regional development.
“Need of energy development is increasing for economic development of the nation. The government is committed to ensuring investment as there is a favourable environment for investment in the country,” Minister Pun said while inaugurating a two-day Power Summit that kicked off in Kathmandu on Thursday.
Independent Power Producers’ Association, Nepal (IPPAN) organised the summit with a slogan of ‘Powering the Asian Century’.
“We have to look for market in India and Bangladesh to sell the power generated in Nepal as the country will be producing more power than required for domestic consumption. It will help achieve the target of sustainable economic growth if we supply power to India and Bangladesh,” he said.
Stating that Nepal has a huge potentiality for energy generation, he said that the summit would be a milestone for power trade with India and Bangladesh in future.
On the occasion, IPPAN president Shailendra Guragain stressed the need for supplying electricity produced in the country to the regional market by increasing internal power consumption.
He said that the summit would help identify the power market, adding that development of the country was impossible in lack of required electricity.
Vice-president of IPPAN Kumar Pandey said that the tripartite agreement was a must for the development of energy and expansion of the power market.
“The private sector is trying to explore the electricity market. However, government sup-port is necessity for this. We can supply power generated here to the regional market in a joint efforts of the public and private sectors,” he said.
Indian Ambassador to Nepal Manjeev Singh Puri said that the joint initiation of Indian and Nepal was needed to supply power in the regional market.
State Minister for Power, Energy & Mineral Resources, Government of the People's Re-public of Bangladesh Nasrul Hamid and Minister for Economic Affairs of Bhutan Lok Nath Sharma said there was a huge potentiality power trade among Nepal, India, Bangla-desh and Bhutan.
Earlier, the government of Bangladesh had committed to purchasing around 9,000 MW power from Nepal by 2040. The government of Indian also committed to buying 15,600 MW power from Nepal by 2034.
In the two-day summit, agreements on the construction of hydropower projects will also be signed.
Experts from Canada, Japan, Netherlands, and Norway as well as regional experts from Asian Development Bank, IFC, DFID and USAID are participating in the summit.