NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 11: Chinese investors have shown keen interest in investing in large solar park projects in cooperation with Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI).
India offers huge investment opportunities in the renewable energy sector by way of participation through equity support, offsetting hedging cost, taking up masala bonds, partnering in the solar projects etc.
During the recently concluding 4th India-China Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED) between the government think-tanks of the two countries — India’s NITI Aayog and National Development and Reform Commission of China — concluded that dialogue and communication can serve as a powerful tool for greater cooperation between the two.
The Indian side was led by NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya while the Chinese side was headed by National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Xu Shaoshi.
Under the theme ‘Development, Innovation and Cooperation for Mutual Benefit’, the dialogue was carried around five working groups. The Working Group on Energy agreed for cooperation in renewable energy promotion both in manufacturing as well as generation of wind and solar energy. The two also agreed for speeding up cooperation in solar cell/module manufacturing in India, expanding cooperation in promoting solar rooftop initiative in India by providing quality solar cells/modules, and providing operations and maintenance services, officials said.
Both sides also exchanged the status on coal development in India and China. The Indian side proposed scope for technical cooperation in promoting underground coal mining technologies and coal gasification, while the Chinese side proposed cooperation in promoting clean coal technologies including environment friendly mining, coal processing, unconventional gas (CBM) and efficient use of coal.
The two sides expressed their willingness to jointly set up a Power Plant O&M Service Centre and the Chinese side has presented a detailed plan of action, an official said.
At the Working Group on Policy Coordination, the NITI Aayog proposed closer integration between the NDRC and NITI Aayog on understanding China’s huge success in development of coastal manufacturing zones.
The Working Group on Infrastructure reviewed the progress in areas such as feasibility study of raising speed of existing railways, feasibility study of high-speed railway, personnel training, and study on railway station redevelopment.
It was also noted that China Railway Eryuan Engineering Group Co Ltd has officially delivered the interim final feasibility study report on Chennai-Bengaluru-Mysore railway upgradation project to India High-speed Railway Company. After modification and improvement of the report, the two sides will discuss further cooperation and research on project implementation.
At the end of the 4th SED the two sides signed two inter-governmental documents for cooperation and 19 documents for cooperation between the enterprises. The SED meeting will be held in 2017 at Beijing.