ASEAN+3 senior officials hold energy talks in Cambodia

ASEAN+3 (China, Japan and South Korea) senior officials met in Phnom Penh on Tuesday to discuss and prepare documents on energy cooperation for the 9th Meeting of ASEAN+3 Energy Ministers, which will be held on Wednesday.

The meeting was a chance for the officials of ASEAN and its three dialogue partners including China, Japan and South Korea to meet and explore ways to accelerate cooperation in energy sector, Tun Lean, director general of energy department at Cambodia's Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy (MIME), said in the meeting.

During the meeting, Sun Yang, a program officer at the Department of International Cooperation of China's National Energy Administration, said that as the biggest developing country, China is making energy conservation as its priority and the country increases energy supply based on domestic resources.

"We have constantly optimized energy structure, so we hope we can work together with our ASEAN Plus Three Countries to create a very good environment for free trade and good investment condition in the region," he said.

He said that China is willing to work together with ASEAN+3 countries in the areas of efficiency of energy consumption, clean energy development and effective supply of energy services to all the peoples in the region.

"China and ASEAN+3 countries are good neighbors. We hope we can build up our mutual understanding," he said. "We, jointly with other countries and international institutions, would like to make efforts to establish a clean, safe, stable and economical energy supply system."

Addressing the meeting, Takeshi Fujimoto, a representative of Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, said that as a country in charge of overseeing the energy security forum, Japan would continue to make contribution to the areas of oil stockpiling and civilian use of nuclear power.

He said that in regard to the civilian use of nuclear power, Japan opened the integrated support center for nuclear nonproliferation and nuclear security last year.

"We all make full use of the center and are implementing programs by focusing on common challenges for countries seeking introduction of civilian nuclear power in the future," he said.

Kim Suhee, deputy director of the Ministry of Knowledge Economy of South Korea, said that the East Asian economies have grown faster than any other parts of the world in recent years and energy consumption is growing rapidly too.

"In this sense, we should strengthen information sharing and find ways to use energy more efficiently," she said.

A series of energy meetings including the 30th ASEAN Ministers on Energy Meeting, the 9th Meeting of Energy Ministers of the ASEAN Plus Three countries, and the 6th East Asian Summit Energy Ministers Meeting will be held here on Sept. 12, according to an official schedule.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.-China.org.cn (September 11, 2012)