by Sachin Kumar
DOHA: Under the Patronage of Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Prime Minister and Interior Minister
H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani yesterday opened the 6th Asian Ministerial Energy Roundtable conference at Sheraton Doha.
The Prime Minister stressed that the global energy sector conditions reinforce the need for dialogue between producers and consumers to reach a common understanding. We are encouraging organisers to continue the march towards opening channels of communication between all parties of energy sector market.
The three-day high-profile roundtable is being organised by the Ministry of Energy and Industry in coordination with the International Energy Forum. The event is being attended by ministers and representatives from 30 largest producers and consumers of energy in the Asian continent.
Sheikh Abdullah added that Qatar’s wise leadership believes that the world is one family and believes in justice and integrity in dealing with partners. Qatar is making efforts to be an Asian example in communication with the current humanitarian concerns, thus easing the burden on governments in continents of the world.
The Prime Minister added that we are now living a new reality thanks to economic, political and technological events in terms of unprecedented abundance in petroleum products and the decline in world prices is justified in terms of oversupply and weak demand.
He confirmed the directives of the Emir towards the Qatari government’s commitment and keenness to accelerate diversification of Qatar’s economy and rapid development of non-petroleum activities in addition to its contribution to the economy and growth, without prejudice to the financing of these projects.
The Prime Minister said that the government takes steps to raise private sector’s contribution rate in state investment and a gradual increase of its role in the development of economic system. He also stressed the importance of the meeting among partners of the same continent to deliberate on regional challenges facing this great continent to find common solutions for the benefit of sustainable development.
He added that the fluctuations in global markets lack rationale and are merely based on speculation to achieve real time gains without creating real added value.
These fluctuations have negative repercussions on economic achievements of all countries around the world and affected standard of living of individuals in Asia, he added. Asia’s population is nearly 60 per cent of the world’s population, however, their contribution is 27 percent of world GDP.
Despite development of value-added industrial products in Asia, unprocessed (raw) materials still make up a large part of Asian countries’ exports such as oil and natural gas, the Premier said.
The economic boom and the accompanying communication technology revolution have led to accelerated development gains among countries of the world.
He also stressed that the meeting held under the umbrella of International Energy Forum is to enhance principle of dialogue between partners and among parties as a civilised model for communication between nations.
The Peninsula
