Joint energy working group: Innaugural session to commence today

BEIJING: Federal Minister for Water and Power, Syed Naveed Qamar arrived here to lead Pakistan at the inaugural session of Pak-China Joint Energy Working Group (JEWG) starting here from today (Monday). The two-day meeting of JEWG will discuss 19 energy projects to enhance cooperation in the power sector and to meet future energy needs. Both the sides will focus on energy specific projects and other areas of cooperation in the field of power generation, he told APP on arrival at the Beijing Capital International Airport. Syed Naveed Qamar who is also Chairman of the JEWG said that both short term and long term projects would be discussed at these meetings. For the short-term, he said that wind power projects are expected to be operational in 18 months. Long-term projects are coal powered units and in this connection the federal minister specially mentioned Thar Coal. He also spoke about other mega hydropower projects like Bhasha Dam, terming them ‘Flagship projects’.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 1^st, 2011.