National Energy Administration (NEA) of the People’s Republic of China and the ASEAN Centre for Energy (ACE) jointly held the 3^rd East Asia Summit Clean Energy Forum on 3-4 July 2017 in Kunming, China. With the theme of “Concrete cooperation for win-win situation: a green, interconnected, inclusive, and diverse regional energy system”, the forum dug deep into energy policy, regional finance, green development, energy accessibility, new energy development, cooperation on resources planning, etc.

ACE Manager of ASEAN Plan of Action for Energy Cooperation Programme, Mr. Christopher Zamora interviewed by Chinese official media, CCTV. Credit: ACE

As an important economic governance platform in Asia, the East Asia Summit (EAS) plays a more and more important role in stabilising regional environment and realising common development, and is increasingly involved in coordinating and promoting regional financial and energy cooperation. The 3^rd Forum, after the first one in Chengdu (2014) and Hainan (2017), has gained more engagement with more important players, not only from policymakers but also with think-tanks, private sectors and financial institutions. Through this Forum, ASEAN and China also transformed the discussions in the room into a concrete and long-term cooperation.

This Forum also witnessed the growth of cooperation between ACE and China Renewable Energy Engineering Institute (CREEI), one of the renewable energy technology providers in China that provide all-round technical services and support for policy research, industrial planning, design approval, project acceptance, quality supervision, formulation of standards, information management and international cooperation. It is an important energy research and consultation base under the National Energy Administration of China (NEA).

Participants checking out the ACE-CREEI joint report. Credit: CREEI

In this Forum, ACE and CREEI launched a joint report, the ASEAN Power Cooperation Report, which offers complete and correct information on electricity development in the region, to be updated on a regular basis and shared during the EAS Clean Energy Forum.  ACE also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with CREEI that set a strong basis for their long-term cooperation, bridging ASEAN and China in their development efforts for mutual benefits. Both parties agreed to enter the long-term strategic cooperation based on the principles of resources sharing, mutual trust and exchange, win-win cooperation, and joint development, to further leverage the strengths of China and ASEAN in the energy sector, enhance partnership and mutual trust. In addition to that, as part of the MoU, ACE and CREEI proudly launched the “China-ASEAN Clean Energy Capacity Building Programme” that is expected to produce 100 experts on clean energy in the next ten years.  On the last day of the forum, the participants had a chance to visit the Energy Cloud Centre (big data control centre) of Yunnan Energy Investment Group; the exhibition centre and remote hydropower control centre of Huaneng Lancang Corporation; and the museum of Yunnan Baiyao (a time-honoured herbal brand of China).