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Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen
I congratulate the UN Secretary General and his team, led by Mr. Kandeh Yumkellah for a successful Forum on Sustainable Energy for All.
Energy - as the Secretary General has said - is the golden thread that connects economic growth, increased social equity and a healthy environment. Our goals - access, efficiency and renewable energy - are clear and achievable. The political will is there. All we need is diligence and ingenuity to achieve them.
This historic Forum that is being attended by more than 1,000 participants representing governments, international organizations, business and civil society will help us attain two objectives: to build a global partnership with the private sector and multilateral development banks for universal energy access; and to translate commitments into kilowatts of energy.
The good news is that access to energy is being integrated into the sustainable development goals and the post-2015 development agenda. Energy will be used as a powerful tool and a catalyst for poverty alleviation, health, education, job creation and climate adaptation.
We know that universal energy access requires huge quantifiable finance. This Forum will give us a global roadmap for mobilizing domestic and foreign capital and recalibrating national and international sources of funding for delivering energy to all communities all around the world, especially those which are the poorest and most vulnerable.
This Forum should also remove the existing mismatch between the growing demand for investment in the energy sector and the availability of capital. SE4All is the platform that will bridge this gap and also help us avoid the friction that stalks the question of financing for sustainable development because what we are looking for is voluntary match making.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
In Pakistan, the Government has developed a National Power Policy to provide affordable energy through an efficient generation, transmission and distribution system. By the end of this decade, Pakistan would be transformed from an energy deficient country to a regional exporter of power.
In sync with SE4ALL, we are working for (i) generation of affordable energy for domestic, commercial and industrial use by harnessing hydel, thermal, coal-fired, and nuclear sources; (ii) exploitation of immense renewable and sustainable energy potential, especially solar and wind power in Pakistan and (iii) promotion of a culture of energy efficiency, conservation and responsibility.
On affordability, our goal is to decrease the cost of energy generation from 12c per unit today to less than 10c per unit by 2017.
To attract private capital for our framework, we are working to (a) eliminate all price distorting subsidies except those which would cater to the poorest (b) rationalize tariff structure (c) remove debts on public sector entities and (d) prioritize projects that can be brought online in two to three years.
We are planning to generate more than 2000 MW of wind electricity to come online in 2016. We have established a 10,000-acre Solar Park, which will generate 1000 MW, and will be one the biggest solar power projects in the world with direct link to the national grid for transmission.
To address water and energy security, a series of small and large Hydel Projects have been initiated. Six projects totaling 388 MW of Hydel power are expected to come online by February 2015. In addition, another 247 MW of Hydel power would be linked to national grid by 2017. We have also launched two major mega power projects of 7100 MW and 4500 MWs, whose completion is targeted by 2020.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Our development partners are keen to invest in Pakistan. To help facilitate foreign investors, we are assigning “key client managers or relationship managers” for a “one window operation”. We also are planning for additional innovation in business models such as allowing the generation companies to sell electricity to the national grid and the private sector alike.
We assure this Forum of Pakistan’s strong support and willingness to work more closely with the UN Secretary General on universalizing energy access.
I thank you Ladies and Gentlemen.