Asia to boost energy cooperation

Officials from 28 Asian countries meeting in Qatar Tuesday will discuss boosting energy cooperation and hear a call for oil producers to invest their petrodollars in the economies of the Asian consumers.

Foreign ministers or their deputies gathering for the fifth ministerial meeting of the Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) will examine a recommendation to invest profits from oil exports in Asia rather than in the West, said the meeting’s Thai coordinator.

“The Asian group needs energy for development, particularly so developing Asian societies which are relying on energy to bring their economies up to the global standard,” he said.

It was agreed to propose to the ministers “the (formal) establishment of the energy forum within the ACD to cover all energy issues, be it the security of energy supplies, finding alternative energy sources or creating a reserve zone to stockpile energy,” he said.

Asked if closer energy cooperation among Asian countries might antagonize the United States and fuel “competition” for oil resources, Rumaihi said any discussion of energy within the ACD was bound to lead to the question of enhancing energy production in Asian regions where production is either too difficult or too costly. “There’s no competition here… (or) perhaps it does not go beyond normal competition in the world,” he said.

China Post