Minister of State for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali is visiting Sri Lanka to participate in the second International Water Cooperation Conference organised by the Sri Lankan Ministry of Water Supply and Drainage in the historic city of Anuradhapura.
Taking benefit of the minister of state’s presence in Sri Lanka, the High Commission of Pakistan in Sri Lanka organised an interactive session for the visiting minister with potential investors and local power generation companies in Colombo last evening. The meeting was attended by the representatives of various small and medium hydro and thermal power producing companies. The High commissioner of Pakistan Maj Gen (r) Qasim Qureshi also attended the session.
The minister of state briefed the participants about the prevailing situation in the power and energy sector of Pakistan and various steps taken by government to address energy needs of the country. The minister informed that the newly-elected government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had identified energy sector as a priority area and had initiated various measures to address the energy requirements on medium to short term basis. The minister encouraged the power producing companies to consider investing in the energy sector of Pakistan and assured them of government’s fullest support.
The minister of state also had a one on one meeting with the Sri Lankan Minister of Water Supply and Drainage Dinesh Gunawerdena in Anuradhapura.
During the meeting, the two ministers agreed to jointly utilise the expertise of both countries to address the issue of drinking water contamination and provision of clean drinking water to the people. The Sri Lankan minister extended appreciation of the government of Sri Lanka for Pakistan’s support throughout various junctures. He commended the support provided by the government of Pakistan during Sri Lankan internal conflict which led to the success of Sri Lankan government in elimination of the menace of terrorism.
He also thanked the government of Pakistan for the development projects initiated by the Pakistani government in the Post war situation.
Abid Sher Ali invited the Sri Lankan Minister Dinesh Gunawerdena and his team to visit Pakistan to explore ways and means to further strengthen the cooperation between the two countries especially in the water treatment and solid waste management.
In a separate development, the visiting minister of state along with the High Commissioner of Pakistan met Sri Lankan Minister of Power and Energy Pavithra Wanniarachchi at the ministry of power and energy in Colombo. The two sides exchanged views on issues of power pilferage and transmission line losses. The Sri Lankan minister briefed Pakistani side about the steps taken by Sri Lanka to successfully mitigate transmission line losses and curtail power theft. The minister of state for water and power invited the Sri Lankan power and energy minister to visit Pakistan for sharing of expertise to address the issues of line losses and power pilferage. The Sri Lankan minister agreed to visit Pakistan in the month of October and expressed her interest in visiting various ongoing mega projects there. It was also decided that the visit of Sri Lankan minister would be preceded by meeting of technical committees on both sides.
