UNB, Dhaka :
Speakers at an international conference on energy security here on Wednesday observed that regional cooperation can play a pivotal role in ensuring energy security of all the nations in South and South East Asia.
“Borders should not be thought as a threat, but it’s an opportunity for meeting each other’s need,” Prof Mahendra P Lama of New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University said while speaking as the keynote speaker at the working session of the conference.
He blamed Indian policymakers’ wrong decision for their dropping the plan to take gas from Myanmar through Bangladesh against the Bangladesh’s demand for allowing its access to directly import electricity from Nepal and Bhutan.
Dr Mahendra Lama said as much as potentials of 58,000 MW of electricity generation are lying in the South Asian region which could be harnessed through regional cooperation. “But politicians and bureaucrats are always the hurdle in regional cooperation as they are slow in deciding and working,” he observed.
He, however, admitted that the India is not taking care of the bad impacts on its neighbours that happen in implementing energy projects. “In fact, impact on different Indian states is being ignored.”
Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali, who was the chief guest at the conference organised by Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS) at its auditorium in the city, said diversification is required for energy security, which can easily come through utilising regional cooperation.
Speakers at an international conference on energy security here on Wednesday observed that regional cooperation can play a pivotal role in ensuring energy security of all the nations in South and South East Asia.
“Borders should not be thought as a threat, but it’s an opportunity for meeting each other’s need,” Prof Mahendra P Lama of New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University said while speaking as the keynote speaker at the working session of the conference.
He blamed Indian policymakers’ wrong decision for their dropping the plan to take gas from Myanmar through Bangladesh against the Bangladesh’s demand for allowing its access to directly import electricity from Nepal and Bhutan.
Dr Mahendra Lama said as much as potentials of 58,000 MW of electricity generation are lying in the South Asian region which could be harnessed through regional cooperation. “But politicians and bureaucrats are always the hurdle in regional cooperation as they are slow in deciding and working,” he observed.
He, however, admitted that the India is not taking care of the bad impacts on its neighbours that happen in implementing energy projects. “In fact, impact on different Indian states is being ignored.”
Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali, who was the chief guest at the conference organised by Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS) at its auditorium in the city, said diversification is required for energy security, which can easily come through utilising regional cooperation.
