The communications and railway minister Obaidul Quader on Wednesday said that the government did not get the desired results of its ambitious plan for the energy and power sectors due to ‘too slow implementation.’
No sweet word would satisfy consumers when they suffer load shedding and don’t get power supply at home, Quader said inaugurating a two-day regional conference on regional energy security.
 Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission hosted the conference on ‘Energy Security and Regional Cooperation : Role of Regulators.’
He spoke mostly on the government’s plans for the power and energy sectors.
Quader said that he would expect power and gas supply to improve by next year if the government could implement its mid-term plan.
He said that he would expect the sufferings of the people caused by power and gas supply crisis to be minimised towards the end of the tenure of the Awami League- led government.
Some of the participants called for a regional initiative for trans- border energy trade to explore the regions energy potentials, efficient use of energy and knowledge sharing for regional energy security.
Towfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, prime minister’s energy adviser, said that the government decided to revive a three-nation gas transmission project for the supply of gas from Myanmar to India through Bangladesh.
He said that political will of the concerned countries, technical solutions and coordination among regulators were important for solving the region’s energy crisis.
The World Banks country director Ellen Goldstein said that south Asia was the least integrated region in the world.
BERC hosted the two-day conference on behalf of South Asian Forum for Infrastructure Regulation.
The 19th meeting of the steering committee of SAFIR would also take place during the conference.
Four energy regulatory officials of the region would present papers on efficient energy use, cross border energy trade, promotion of renewable energy and challenges facing the regulators in solving energy crisis.
The organisers said that the conference would recommend how to explore and share power and energy potentials in South and South-East Asia for solving regional energy crisis.