Govt Urged For Enhancing Share Of Hydropower In Its Energy Mix

Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) on Monday urged the government for enhancing hydropower share in energy mix to reduce production cost

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 1st Nov, 2021 ) :Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) on Monday urged the government for enhancing hydropower share in energy mix to reduce production cost.

It said that availability of cheap energy played a key role in promoting business and economic activities and urged the government to focus on enhancing the share of hydropower in the total energy mix that would help reduce manufacturing cost and boost business activities, industrialization and exports.

Muhammad Shakeel Munir, President, ICCI while speaking as Guest of Honor after distributing awards amongst the participants of 1st International Conference on Pakistan Hydropower Sector organized by Energy Update in collaboration with Private Power Infrastructure board (PPIB) said that Pakistan mostly depended on thermal power generation, which has become costly due to rising oil prices and was a major cause of high cost of doing business in Pakistan.

He said that the share of thermal power was over 59 percent in total energy mix of Pakistan while the share of hydropower was just 29 percent and urged the government to take strong measures to increase hydropower share up to 50 percent by 2030.

He said that Pakistan has tremendous potential to produce plenty of energy through renewable sources including hydro, wind and solar, which are clean and environment friendly.

He emphasized that Pakistan should exploit these indigenous energy sources to reduce energy cost and import bill, improve competitiveness of industry and boost exports.

ICCI President also urged the government to build more dams in the country on a public-private partnership basis to overcome the issue of water shortage and produce clean and cheap energy.

He lauded the initiative of Energy Update for organizing an international conference on hydropower sector and hoped that it would provide a good food for thought to the policymakers for paying more attention towards indigenous cheap energy sources that would lay a strong foundation for the sustainable economic growth of the country.