The US Agency for International Development (USAID) reaffirmed on Tuesday its commitment towards helping to provide clean energy and energy security for Pakistan at the conclusion of a two-day Renewable Energy Symposium co-sponsored by the Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) and the Saarc Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
"I am very pleased that USAID, through our South Asia regional initiative on Energy, has been able to realise the common strategic needs of both Pakistan and Afghanistan in the production of these wind and solar maps," USAID Pakistan Mission Director Anne Aarnes said in her remarks.
"Throughout the world USAID has long supported clean energy activities, in order to facilitate economic growth, and to reduce global climate change impacts," she added.
Ms Aarnes informed that although the USAID Pakistan programme is focused on issues of education, governance, health, and economic growth, energy continues to be a critical cross-cutting enabler for success in each of these areas.
The wind and solar maps launched on Monday at the symposium were funded by USAID's South Asia Regional Initiative for Energy (SARI/Energy) programme and produced by the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) of the US Department of Energy (DOE). The mapping exercise for both Pakistan and Afghanistan was completed in April 2007.
The two-day symposium brought together stakeholders from the South Asian region and the US to discuss and share ideas on regional renewable energy and energy conservation development opportunities.
The United States is the largest bilateral donor of assistance to Pakistan. Through the USAID, it is providing to Pakistan, over five years, $1.5 billion in the five major areas of education, health, economic growth, democracy & governance, and earthquake reconstruction.
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