Power play china’s got the power

China asked Pakistan on Tuesday to resolve issues faced by Chinese companies interested in investment in energy sector to undertake numerous power and energy sector projects for which they will be bringing investment and machinery to fast track their completion to overcome energy shortage crippling the economy. An official source said the Chinese asked Pakistan to form a comprehensive power development plan in order to achieve better energy output, as they showed interest to invest in 14 mega hydel power projects having cumulative potential of 10,000 MW. The two days of Pak-China Joint Energy Working Group (JEWG) was led by the Minister for Water and Power Naveed Qamar and Chinese delegation was led by Wu. The talks reviewed the financial and other aspects of projects related to energy cooperation. In a joint statement, Wu said that ongoing energy crisis in Pakistan could be resolve my mutual energy cooperation of both sides. We believe energy cooperation between Pakistan and China should continue and future of both is bright. He said that infrastructure development is the need of time to mature the ongoing and forthcoming energy development projects for easy transportation of machinery and equipments on the site. Qamar assured Chinese official for complete support to Chinese entrepreneurs, who have been interested or involved in joint energy development projects. He said Chinese authorities gave positive response in context of financing different mega and small energy power projects including 969 MW Neelum Jehlum Hydropower Project (NJHP) costing $3.6 billion, 1100 MW Kohala Hydropower Project (KHP) costing $2.2 billion as well as more than 17 other hydro, renewable and clean energy hydro power projects. The minister said the government would soon send a high level delegation comprising financial and legal managers to discuss and settled down the concerns of both partners. He also maintained that the issue raised by Chinese authorities regarding issuance of No-Objection Certificate (NOC) would be addressed on immediate basis and concrete decision would be taken to resolve the issue. He urged for financing for particularly mega hydropower projects, which would definitely helpful in near future to overcome the ongoing energy crisis in Pakistan. He said the contact of laying transmission lines under UCH-I, Guddu and NJHP would be awarded those companies either Chinese or local, who will win international competitive bidding.
Pakistan also expressed its interest over the proposal of Infrastructure Fund (IF) discussed in last JEWG meeting held in Beijing on Aug 2011 and stressed over formation of banking consortium to finance the infrastructure development.
Later, signing ceremony for three wind energy projects was held including signing of Letter of Intent (LoI) on 150 MW wind energy project between United Energy Pakistan Limited (UEPL) and China Development Bank Cooperation (CDBC), inking Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) of 350 MW wind energy project between Three Gorges and Pakistani authorities and document inked between Dawood Power Private Limited (DPPL) and Hydro China Engineering Company Limited (HCECL) for 50 MW power project.