SAARC urged to harness energy potentials

South Asian economies could benefit hugely if they unlocked their energy potential, especially plentiful hydro-electricity in Nepal and Bhutan, Bangladeshi business leaders told a regional meeting on Sunday.

But the politics of mistrust in the region and internal inefficiencies in some member countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) have kept these opportunities out of reach, they said.

SAARC groups Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and is home to more than 1.5 billion people.

“Energy is a top priority, and we cannot grow our economies to their full strength due to lack of substantial energy resources,” said Annisul Huq, president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry. “But the region is rich with this natural gift, with Bhutan and Nepal having hydro-power capacity that can alone satisfy half of the demand globally,” Annisul said.

He told the meeting that the hydro-power potential in Nepal alone was estimated at 80,000 megawatts, of which at least 40,000 MW was considered economical, while Bhutan also has huge hydro-power capacity. Yet intra-regional trade and business could not achieve their potentials “due to mistrust” among regional leaders, he said.

“Bhutan is not allowed by powerful neighbour India to export energy to other countries, and also Nepal faces several constraints in producing and exporting electricity,” said Aftabul Islam, former president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Bangladesh.

“It is one of the massive problems, especially for the least developed countries like us, and we can not solve it alone,” Annisul said.

He said energy-starved Bangladesh, which faces a daily shortage of 250 million cubic feet of gas, could meet its energy demands largely through intra-regional cooperation.

Aftabul lamented Bangladesh “missed the train” by failing to seize an Indian proposal in 2007 to set up a tri-nation gas pipeline, at a cost of $1 billion. “India would use the pipeline to import natural gas from Myanmar, which would also help Bangladesh to earn $125 million annually, along with a fresh $600 million investment,” Aftabul said.

Over the past year, Bangladeshi entrepreneurs have been held up from starting up businesses after investing about $500 million in Chittagong port city due to a lack of energy, officials said.

Annisul said the SAARC nations could raise their total annual trade volume more than six times to $20 billion from only $3 billion now if they cooperated more among themselves.

DHAKA, Reuters