Saturday, 18 October 2014 02:14
-
- {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
New Delhi: The fifth meeting of the energy ministers of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was held in New Delhi on 17 October, with an aim to strengthen energy cooperation among the member countries.
Energy ministers and senior officials from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka were part of the meeting.
India’s Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal said that the similarities between the socio-economic conditions would help the SAARC nations to stay together and become a regional economic power house.
“There is indeed a lot that we can lean from the success of each other and sharing and implementation of the best practices, which will be particularly valuable, given the similarity in socio-economic conditions and our shared cultural heritage and values,” said Goyal
The agenda of the meeting included review of status of implementation of decisions of the Fourth Meeting of SAARC Energy Ministers held in Dhaka on 15 September 2011.
SAARC was created in 1985 with its secretariat in Kathmandu.
Regional cooperation in the energy sector began in January 2000 with the setting up of a SAARC Technical Committee on Energy.