First ASEAN-India Ministerial Meeting on cooperation in Renewable Energy

The first ASEAN-India Ministerial Meeting on cooperation in Renewable Energy was held in New Delhi which discussed policy and regulatory frameworks for promoting renewable energy in ASEAN member countries and India. The issues of financing of renewable energy, cooperation in research and development, technology transfer etc, came up for discussion. The meeting was designed to increase interactions at institutional as well as industry levels among ASEAN countries and India. Only Ministers from Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam were at the meeting. Other delegations were headed by respective ambassadors and high commissioners. During the meet India envisioned that every citizen of ASEAN-India region should have access to clean, reliable and affordable energy. ASEAN and India have several commonalities in their quest for targetting renewable energy. India's renewable energy programme is primarily private sector-driven and offers significant investment and business opportunities. Many ASEAN countries at the meeting sought cooperation in solar, wind, biomass and small hydro technologies, including capacity building, from India. India today stands among the top five countries of the world in terms of renewable energy installed capacity and at present renewable power, with over 26 GW installed capacity, represents about 12.5 percent of the total installed power generation capacity in India. India aims to achieve about 55 GW of renewable power by 2017.