Federal Minister for Water and Power, Syed Naveed Qamar arrived here on Sunday to lead Pakistan at the inaugural session of Pak-China Joint Energy Working Group (JEWG) starting here from Monday. The 2-day meeting of JEWG will discuss 19 energy projects to enhance co-operation in the power sector and to meet the future energy need.
As this is the first forum of the JEWG, so both sides will focus on energy specific projects and other areas of co-operation in the field of power generation, he told APP on arrival at the Beijing Capital International Airport. He said that the projects that face irritant would be discussed and bottlenecks removed, while new initiatives would also be taken.
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 short terms, he said that the wind power projects we expect to be operational in eighteen months.
Long term projects are coal powered units and in this connection the federal minister specially mentioned the Thar Coal in which mining and power plants both are needed. He also said that there are other mega hydro power projects like Bhasha Dam, adding these are our 'Flagship projects'.
"We expects major participation of Chinese companies in these projects", he noted.
He hailed the Chinese government initiatives in supporting these projects, adding that this giant step from Chinese side will ensure progress and development of Pakistan. He said that energy issue is the major challenge Pakistan is facing at these days.
If Pakistan is successful in resolution of energy crisis, the economy and industries of the country will resume operation with full swing. The Federal minister said that the government is fully cognisance of the difficulties being faced by the people due to power shortage and is paying full attention to address these problems.
Ambassador Masood Khan who welcomed Federal Minister Syed Naveed Qamar at the airport said that the Energy Working Group was constituted in pursuant to an MoU signed between Pakistan and China to promote co-operation in the field of energy during Premier Wen Jiabao's official visit to Pakistan in December 2010.