South Asia must overcome energy shortage: Saarc

KARACHI - It is the time when world is passing through an era of economic recession. Fortunately, the economies of South Asia so far have had limited impact of financial meltdown as compared with OECD countries.
However, to keep our economies on track we have to maintain current level of growth, we drastically need to overcome shortage of energy, which is one of the most biggest challenged faced by the region, these were the thoughts conveyed by the representatives of the SAARC countries during a seminar.
According to the studies conducted in the region of South Asia regarding the matter of energy consumption in South Asia as compared to the last two decades, when the energy consumption was 5.8 per cent against low energy production of 2.3 per cent, the demand for energy is growing at a rate of 10 per cent annually which has almost doubled in the last decade.
It is note worthy that South Asia has the lowest per capita consumption of energy in the world. The per day energy consumption per person which is less than 1 kilowatt, is much lower than Japan and Germany with 6 kilo watt per person and United States with 11.4 kilo watt per person. Almost 60 per cent of population of South Asia remain without electricity and is dependent on biomass. However, it is estimated that region will have the highest rate of energy consumption by 2010 and beyond.