---On the morning of July 17th, 2023, the National Research Institute for Rural Electrification (NRIRE) of the Ministry of Water Resources of China / Hangzhou Regional Center (Asia-Pacific) for Small Hydro Power (HRC) organized the project meeting of China-Pakistan Joint Research on Small Hydropower Technology which was a Strategic Scientific and Technological Innovation Cooperation Key Project under the National Key R&D Program. Ms. WANG Jinsu, Division Chief for the Department of International Cooperation, Science and Technology of the Ministry of Water Resources (MWR) of China, and Dr. Khan Muhammad Wazir, Counsellor (Technical Affairs) of the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in China attended and addressed the meeting via Zoom Cloud Meeting online. Mr. Munawar Iqbal, Director General of Hydropower of the Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB) of the Ministry of Energy of Pakistan, Mr. Iqbal Hussain, Director (Admin/MHP) of the Pakistan Council of Renewable Energy Technologies (PCRET), and Mr. Roshan Pandey, Senior Technical Officer of the Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) and other experts attended the meeting in Hangzhou offline. Representatives of organizations such as the Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) and the Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) attended the meeting online.
Mr. XU Zhifeng, Director General and Party Secretary of NRIRE/HRC attended the meeting and delivered the welcoming remarks. Mr. XU thanked all parties for their careful guidance and strong support for the international cooperation work of NRIRE/HRC, and mentioned that NRIRE/HRC would continue to carry out cooperation between China-Pakistan and China-South Asia on small hydropower and other renewable energy, further give play to the platform role of China-Pakistan “Belt and Road” Joint Laboratory on Small Hydropower Technology, and advance cooperation on standard system, technology application and training of young talents to serve sustainable socio-economic development in South Asia.
Ms. WANG Jinsu, Division Chief for the Department of International Cooperation, Science and Technology of the Ministry of Water Resources of China congratulated and paid tribute to NRIRE/HRC for overcoming the impact of the epidemic, promoting the project implementation in an orderly manner and achieving fruitful results. Ms. WANG was pleased to see that as the project progressed, its scope of cooperation and influence gradually expanded from Pakistan to other South Asian countries, and that the relevant technologies developed by the project could solve the problem of applicability in different regions and could be popularized and applied in the South Asian countries and regions to help solve the local power shortage issue. She is also glad to see that capacity-building activities provided by the Joint Laboratory had resulted in the development of a large number of technical personnel in the field of small hydropower and other renewable energy sources in South Asia. Ms. WANG hoped that with the joint efforts of all parties, more vigorous innovations would be carried out and more far-reaching results would be achieved.
Dr. Khan Muhammad Wazir, Counsellor (Technical Affairs) of Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in China noted that the Belt and Road Initiative and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) cooperation focused on the fields of energy and power, transportation and communication, industry, infrastructure, agriculture, information technology, science and technology, tourism, and climate change and that China and Pakistan attached great importance to the cooperation in the field of green energy and green economy. In such context, the importance of the China-Pakistan Joint Research Project on Small Hydropower Technology was self-evident. And he hoped that NRIRE/HRC and all parties of Pakistan continued to drive the project to complete success.
Mr. DONG Dafu, Deputy Director General of NRIRE/HRC and the project leader of China-Pakistan Joint Research on Small Hydropower Technology gave a presentation on the overall progress of the project, and deployed the work of joint demonstration, technology application, and joint laboratory platform construction for the next step. The Chinese and foreign working groups of the project and representatives of the AJK Power Development Organization (AJK PDO) jointly signed the tripartite cooperation agreement on the project demonstration construction.
The representatives of the cooperation organizations of Pakistan and Nepal highly appreciated the implementation of the China-Pakistan Joint Research Project on Small Hydropower Technology and the construction of the China-Pakistan “Belt and Road” Joint Laboratory on Small Hydropower Technology, believing that the implementation of the project would play an important role in the development of green energy, promoting technological progress and sustainable social and economic development in Pakistan and other South Asian countries. Some suggestions for cooperation were put forward from the aspects of co-developing technical standards, promoting technology application and promoting the complementary development of various energy sources.
In recent years, NRIRE/HRC has actively carried out cooperation on small hydropower technology between China and Pakistan, and established the China-Pakistan Joint Research Center on Small Hydropower Technology in Pakistan by undertaking the China-aid science and technology project of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China for other developing countries and the National Key Research and Development Plan, and the cooperation achievements have been praised by the leaders of the two countries. On April 20, 2015, President XI Jinping inaugurated the China-Pakistan Joint Research Center on Small Hydropower Technology during his state visit to Pakistan. After more than 10 years of continuous technical exchanges and cooperation, the China-Pakistan Joint Research Center on Small Hydropower Technology was recognized by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China as one of the first batch of 14 “Belt and Road” joint laboratories. Based on multi-party participation and cooperation, the joint laboratory has carried out joint research on small hydropower technology, equipment research and development, standard co-development, demonstration construction, personnel training and others. It has become a high-level platform for small hydropower and other renewable energy technologies cooperation between the two governments, and has generated extensive radiant influence in South Asia, forming a new model of China-South Asia small hydropower and other clean energy technologies research cooperation with Pakistan at the center and extensive participation of Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and other South Asian countries.(2023-08-01)
Representatives of the Department of International Cooperation, Science and Technology of Ministry of Water Resources of China and the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in China Attended and Addressed the Meeting Online
The Scene of the Project Meeting
