WEC-ABAC Joint Symposium Opening remarks
24 August 2009, Danang, Vietnam
Distinguished participants, ladies and gentlemen,
It is a great pleasure for me to host the WEC-ABAC Joint Symposium on Energy Efficiency in the beautiful city of Danang, where the third ABAC meeting will take place later on today.
As you know, the World Energy Council or “WEC” has been deeply involved in the world-wide discussion on energy with the full support of its global network. For its part, ABAC (APEC Business Advisory Council), composed as it is of major economies in terms of energy consumption, serves as a channel for conveying the private sector’s position to governments. Therefore, the two organizations share the view that cooperation is required more than ever for efficiently tackling energy security and climate change; two topics which were chosen as priority topics for discussion at each organization’s respective forums.
Against this backdrop, WEC and ABAC have long talked about how to establish a channel of regular dialogue between the two organizations. This joint symposium is the result of those discussions. It is being held on the margins of the third ABAC meeting later on today under the theme of “Best Practices of Energy Efficiency.”
We have prepared for the symposium with the full support of ABAC Vietnam and the WEC Program Committee. With their help we have invited an internationally well-known speaker from WEC, four speakers representing national WEC Member Committees, one Vietnamese speaker on behalf of ABAC and one special speaker for APP (Asia Pacific Partnership). In addition, I am happy to introduce a speaker from the NCAPEC (National Center for APEC), who will make a presentation on the ABAC Energy Forum.
