Power Division told to swiftly approve G-B energy policy Minister reviews preparation for CPEC’s Joint Cooperation Committee meeting
ISLAMABAD:
Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal on Tuesday chaired a meeting to review preparations for the upcoming 11th Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) huddle, which would be held at the end of current month.
Planning Commission secretary, communication secretary, China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Centre of Excellence executive director and representatives of various ministries attended the pre-CPEC JCC meeting.
It was noted that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif would visit China later in the current week and the 11th JCC held
The meeting discussed several projects in the areas of energy, transport, information technology, socio-economic development, industrial cooperation, science and technology, transport, infrastructure and international cooperation.
The planning minister directed the Power Division to expedite the approval of energy policy for Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) so that projects that had already been
Citing that Chinese authorities had shown great interest in the mining sector, he directed the ministry concerned to draw up a tangible proposal.
“Chinese are ready to set up a working group on the mining sector, therefore, we must come up with some tangible proposals,” the minister said, while stressing that the ministries should formulate a concrete plan rather than taking “business-as-usual” approach.
He also called for including a development and production facility for solar panels for domestic use as well as export in the agenda of the JCC.
country.
“The government has declared this decade as the Decade of Dams,” he said. “The leadership is according top priority to building more dams to not only improve the share of hydropower in the energy mix, but also help secure more water for the agriculture sector.
” The minister said that Pakistan’s potential for clean, affordable, reliable and indigenous hydropower stood at 64,000 megawatts. At present, hydropower projects possessing the capacity of only 9,900MW were in operation, which was just 29% of the current energy mix, he added.
According to him, it is a proven fact that hydropower projects not only provide green energy to the consumers but also slash the import bill.
Azhar announced that the government was formulating the Gilgit-Baltistan Power Policy to tap 21,000MW of hydroelectric power potential of the region.
“Despite the fact that Pakistan possesses a hydropower potential of over 60,000MW, the past governments established power projects based on costly imported fuels, which affected the energy cost,” he said. “Prices of coal and furnace oil are increasing sharply day after day
Policy restructuring frame work under the federal government
Pakistan is a federal state consists of four provinces namely, the Punjab, Sindh, Baluchistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Under the policy of decentralization, the WAPDA was further
Similarly for Khyber Pakhtoon khawa and Baluchistan were Peshawar Electric Supply Corporation (PESCO) and Quetta Electric Supply Corporation (QUESCO); respectively.
Sukkur Electric Power Corporating fighur 6 is showing the framework of power policy of Pakistan .