World Bank holds consultation on future energy strategy

Tirana, June 3 – The World Bank Group has held a consultation meeting in Tirana to gather input for a new energy sector strategy, which is expected to be completed in early 2011. The meeting brought together a range of stakeholders, including representatives from government agencies, multilateral development banks, donor agencies, non-governmental organizations, academia, and the private sector. The Energy Strategy Approach Paper, which outlines the objectives and pillars of a proposed approach, provided a basis for the discussion.
“Albania’s experience in the power sector has a number of lessons for other countries,” said Masami Kojima, the lead energy specialist for the World Bank Group, who presented the strategy in Tirana. “The views we heard from people here in Tirana and in other countries will help the World Bank refine its strategy to more effectively address energy challenges.”
In the last four months, a series of consultations have been held in a number of countries, including China, Indonesia, Kenya, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Mexico, Peru, Tunisia, Turkey, and Ukraine. These consultations are part of broader global effort to gather input from a wide range of perspectives on how the World Bank Group can best help developing countries improve the access and reliability of energy while helping facilitate the shift to a more environmentally sustainable energy development path.
The input collected will be used to produce a draft energy strategy document, which will be posted on the web, along with a document outlining how the issues raised during consultations were addressed in the drafting of the strategy paper.
“This consultation is a tremendous opportunity to open a dialogue on how we can best help countries increase the supply and reliability of energy for their citizens while helping them make the important shift to a lower-carbon growth path,” says Jamal Saghir, World Bank Director of Energy, Transport and Water.