The 4th SAARC Energy Minister’s meeting will be inaugurated in Dhaka on Thursday morning by Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The meeting is focused on strengthening regional co-operation in the energy sector. Union Minister of Power, Sushil kumar Shinde is leading a high powered Indian delegation which will be taking part in the SAARC Energy Minister’s meeting. Ahead of the ministerial level meeting, top officials of the energy ministries of the member countries of SAARC held discussions in Dhaka yesterday to review the various committee reports and finalise the agenda for the meeting. Various issues like SAARC regional energy trade, framework agreement for cooperation and setting up of a regional power exchange are expected to dominate the conference. Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has emphasised that Dhaka attaches high priority to regional cooperation in South Asia during her discussions yesterday with the visiting SAARC Secretary General Fathimath Dhiyana Saeed. With Studies predicting that energy needs of South Asia will increase three times in the next fifteen to twenty years, members of SAARC countries are looking at strengthening regional co-operation to meet their energy needs. The fourth SAARC Energy Minister’s meeting in Dhaka is part of this initiative and is taking place nearly two years after the last meeting was held in Colombo. The meeting will review the reports of expert groups set up to identify areas of cooperation in various sectors like Oil and Gas, Electricity, Renewable Energy and Technology and knowledge sharing on specific issues in the energy sector. SAARC is also in the process of conducting a study to explore the possibility of setting up a regional power exchange which is likely to be completed in 2012. The Energy Ministers will also review the progress made on the Concept Paper for a Road Map to develop the SAARC Market for Electricity and a concept paper on SAARC Inter-Governmental Framework Agreement for Regional Energy Cooperation.