State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid has said that partnership with other countries is a must to increase energy security and availability.
“Mutual cooperation will help self-improvement and ensure free flow of technology,” he said at a ministerial-level meeting of ‘Enabling Energy Transformation through Technology and Policy Innovations’ at Baku in Azerbaijan, according to a press release.
He also reviewed of experience successes and potentials of Bangladesh in this field and presented challenges of renewable energy in Bangladesh perspective and underscored regional cooperation for energy security.
Nasrul urged the International Energy Charter Forum to play a significant role to ensure energy security by investing in the sector, sharing technologies and developing expertise. “Bangladesh is committed to cooperate for ensuring availability of uninterrupted energy through international partnership,” the state minister said. Applauding Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s leadership, Azerbaijan’s Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov has said Bangladesh is developing fast. He emphasized cooperation between state owned companies of Azerbaijan and Bangladesh for development of both the countries.
The meeting was held between the Minister of Energy of the Republic of Azerbaijan Parviz Shahbazov and Nasrul Hamid, State Minister of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources of Bangladesh, within the International Energy Charter.
The current status and prospects of development of bilateral relations, especially the opportunities for expanding cooperation in the energy sector were discussed at the meeting. Noting that cooperation within the Energy Charter creates opportunities for the development of relations between the two countries, the minister said that Azerbaijan will chair the International Energy Charter Conference next year. It was noted SOCAR plays an important role in energy cooperation. The importance of the use of SOCAR's experience in the development of Bangladesh's oil and gas fields, as well as of the continued supply of the oil products to Bangladesh by “SOCAR Trading S.A.” was highlighted.
The Minister of Energy brought to the attention of oil and gas projects of Azerbaijan, information on development indicators in the energy sector, potential and targets for renewable energy. Nasrul also spoke about the rapid development of energy sector in Bangladesh, the development of gas fields, and the increase of generating capacity, especially on the account of renewable energy.
It was noted that “ACWA power” company of Saudi Arabia, which is Azerbaijan's partner on renewable energy, is currently cooperating with Bangladesh on LNG infrastructure and solar energy projects.
Among others, Albanian Deputy Minister for Energy Illir Bejtja, Spain’s Deputy Secretary of Energy Dominguez Abascal, Deputy Minister for Energy in Mongolian Gantulga Tudevkhuu, Turkish Deputy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar and Secretary-General of International Energy Charter Forum Dr Urban Rusnak also spoke at the meeting.
