Asian Regional Summit, 23rd February 2010 in Kuala Lumpur / World LP Gas Association

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WLPGA held an Asian Regional Summit on 23 February 2010 in Kuala Lumpur. The theme of the Summit was “LP Gas: Exceptional Energy for Asia”.

The WLPGA, supported by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) ‘Energy 4 All’ programme, held a one day Asia LP Gas Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Tuesday 23rd February 2010.

Over 150 people from 27 countries registered for this inaugural event with the theme ‘LP Gas – An Exceptional Energy for Asia’.
The venue for the Asia Summit was the Kuala Lumpur Conference Centre which provided exceptional facilities for the sponsors, delegates and presenters. This free to enter event was well received by all who attended.
Five local and international sponsors - who manned small exhibits - together with four international media partners, gave the Summit a ‘mini forum’ feel to it and the quality of the proceedings and facilities certainly matched those expected at the WLPGA World events.

This was the second regional event organised by the WLPGA following the successful one day African Summit held in Lagos in April 2009. These local events are designed for delegates to attend and focus on regional issues.
The Summit examined ways how LP Gas could be made more accessible and affordable to Asian populations that are not enjoying the social, economic and environmental benefits that modern grid energy systems offer. In particular there was a focus on populations who depend heavily on solid fuel such as wood, coal, charcoal and animal waste.

A dynamic programme for the Summit commenced with keynote contributions from James Rockall, Managing Director of the WLPGA, Kimball Chen, First Vice President of the WLPGA and Anthony Jude, Director of the Asian Development Bank. They outlined the important role LP Gas plays in reaching over 3 billion people in the world, and addressed some of the challenges that the rest of the world’s population face in gaining access to modern energy, especially LP Gas.

The first of two main sessions during the day outlined why LP Gas is the right energy for Asia and included contributions from the WLPGA, ADB, Indonesia’s State Oil and Gas Company Pertamina, the Clean Air Initiative Asia based in Manila and Ragasco, an international LP Gas equipment manufacturer.
The second main session after lunch focused on development models that work for Asia and included examples from India, Bangladesh, Japan, the Philippines, and the Pacific Region.

Senior representatives attending the Summit then joined a round table panel workshop for the final session of the day. They included Kimball Chen representing the WLPGA, Craig Wilson, Executive Director of The Foundation for Development Cooperation, Anthony Jude from the Asian Development Bank, Carlos P. Corpuz from Petronas Energy Philippines and Ms Elga Pereira representing the Timor Leste government. The panel was moderated by Nadzru Azhari, a Director of the Randhill Group of Malaysia.
The round table panel members discussed some of the challenges and opportunities facing governments and populations in the Region with respect to access to modern energy and LP Gas in particular.

Ms Elga Pereira gave an example of how governments can respond to the challenges by announcing that the Timor Leste government has established a working group, together with the WLPGA, to examine ways to introduce LP Gas into her country which currently relies heavily on wood for primary energy.
The next WLPGA Regional Summit will be held in Marrakech in Morocco on 20th May 2010.