KATHMANDU: The government has called on the international community to invest in Nepal, stating that atmosphere towards that has been enabled through legal, policy level and structural reforms. The energy sector acknowledged as the major basis for the country’s economic development, has been put in the center while making such improvements.

In his address to a ministerial-level session of the World Energy Congress 2019 underway in Abu Dhabi of the United Arab Emirates,  Minister for Energy, Water Resource and Irrigation, Barshaman Pun,  called on the foreign community to invest in Nepal with full confidence.

The government aimed to generate 15,000 megawatts of electricity within 10 years, he informed the gathering, adding that fifty percent of power to be produced would be used for export.

He presented a data that 90 percent of total energy consumed in Nepal is based on traditional sources of energy such as biomass and petroproducts, and claimed that Nepal was a high potential zone for hydropower and renewable energy production and internal consumption.

The country presently consumed only seven percent hydropower and renewable energy and the government had planned increasing its volume gradually, he added.

“So far power supply to 88 percent population is based on-grid and off-grid means and power consumption per person in 245 kilowatts per hour,” the Minister apprised the congress and shared to the session that Energy Trade and Transmission Interconnectivity Agreement had been signed with India and the same sort of agreement had been signed with China and Bangladesh as well.  A basic level agreement had been achieved for transnational power trade.

He  further added consensus had been achieved in regard with a ‘framework’ designed for the energy assistance and exchange among the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation ( Saarc) countries and  the Bay of Bengal Initiative for  Multi-Sectoral, Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) nations had reached to a consensus to collaborate in the energy sector.

“Nepal is ready for sub-regional and regional electricity collaboration and works are going on accordingly.  The (Nepal) government is committed to realizing the resolution for ‘prosperous Nepal, happy Nepali’,” the Energy Minister said.

As he said, collaboration with neighbors in the energy sector and extension of transmission and grid network were the top priorities of the government.

“We have a target of increasing the per person power consumption rate to 1,500 KW per hour.”