---At
the invitation of World Bank and GVEP, Ms. Cheng Xialei,
deputy director of HRC participated and delivered a presentation
to a high-level regional Workshop on Modern Energy Services
and Poverty Reduction in East Asia, which was held in Phnom
Penh, Cambodia, May 4 to 6, 2005, under the co-auspices
of the World Bank, the Global Village Energy Partnership
(GVEP) and the UNDP. Nearly 180 delegates from Cambodia,
Indonesia, Laos, Mongolia, Philippines and Vietnam, etc.
attended, including country delegations headed by the Minister
in charge of Energy comprised of officers at the level of
Permanent Secretary or Director, from the Ministries of
Education, Health, Agriculture, Water; as well as representatives
from the private sector, provincial government, and civil
society.
The general objective of the Workshop
is to establish how the provision of modern energy services
can enhance economic and social development and reduce
poverty in East Asia; to explore how these energy services
can contribute to attaining the Millennium Development
Goals, as well as to identify specific energy investment
opportunities being put forward for financing by the donor
and banking communities.
According to the agenda, in the afternoon
of the second day, Ms. Cheng Xialei delivered a 30-minute
presentation, sharing with participants how China managed
to integrate decentralized energy services as an integral
part of the development of its rural areas; and using
the example of the SHP, introducing how it is being used
to support the economy at the local level and to decrease
the use of fuel wood by local farmers. The presentation
also explained how the transition to small rural hydropower
enterprises has been handled on the financial, technical
and regulatory standpoints and what are the lessons learnt
that could benefit to other countries. Being of great
interests to all the participants, the presentation was
highly acclaimed and led to the heat of discussion.
Many of the participants also showed
their keen interests in the 2005 International Training
Course on SHP, which, entrusted by the MOFCOM of China,
will be conducted by HRC in the coming October and November.
They expressed the strong desires to dispatch engineers
for attending the training course and thus to learn more
about the SHP development in China. (2005-05-09)
