ISLAMABAD, Nov 6: Delegates at the Saarc Energy Conference have criticised politicisation of economic issues in South Asia causing delay in the execution of joint energy programmes.

At the conclusion of the three-day energy conference here on Friday, they expressed their disappointment that the Saarc member countries had not been able to develop cooperation and coordination to share expertise and exploit the potentials of locally available sources of energy.

All the eight member states Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka participated in the energy conference held at Saarc Energy Centre located in Hydrocarbon Development Institute of Pakistan. An official said that it was noted in the conference that all the Saarc member states except Bhutan were facing energy shortages. “Bhutan is one of poorest country in the region but now its economy has improved due to export earnings from electricity,” the official said and added that such a model could be replicated in other countries also.

The conference also observed that the region’s dependence on fuel oil for power generation was increasing and serious efforts were needed to develop local energy resources like coal and hydrocarbon to cut oil imports.

In his message to the conference, Petroleum Minister Naveed Qamar said that Pakistan was leading the Saarc countries for cooperation in the energy sector and the concept of energy ring presented by Pakistan was gaining widespread acceptance in the whole region.

However, the conference noted that Nepal had huge potentials for hydroelectricity production but the country lacked expertise and investment potentials to establish power generation plants.

The technical team belonging to Pakistan also pointed out that India had borders with all countries in South Asia, but due to political differences India was importing energy only from Bhutan.

The Nepalese delegation also suggested that their country could export power to Pakistan but the lines had to cross over India to reach Pakistan.

The delegates observed that energy and economic issues should not be part of the politics and the region needed to tap energy resources for economic growth and social development.

The next SAARC Energy Conference would be held in New Delhi in the last week of December.

Syed Naveed Qamar noted with pleasure that the Saarc Energy Centre had already entered into an agreement with the Asean Centre for Energy with a view to extending the frontiers of energy cooperation beyond the Saarc and to learn from the experiences of Asean region in the field of energy cooperation.

The technical teams of Saarc countries discussed various energy related issues including energy trade, energy efficiency, renewable energy including bio-diesel and bio-ethanol, joint import of crude oil, rural electrification, gas and power interconnection grid, development of non-conventional hydrocarbons, labelling and standardisation of energy appliances, preparation of common template for power exchanges, sharing of best practices, capacity building and technology transfer.