Shahriar Alam leads Bangladesh at ACD meeting in Abu Dhabi

State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam led the Bangladesh delegation at the 15th ministerial meeting of Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, the foreign ministry says.

Some 34 Asian Countries participated in the meeting on the theme of “Sustainable Energy”.

Bangladesh is a ‘Co-Prime Mover’ in two pillars of cooperation in ACD, namely inter-relation of food, water and energy security and connectivity.

Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the UAE Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan chaired the meeting.

In his speech , Shahriar highlighted the power and energy issue and said the Energy Action plan to be adopted by ACD would play “an important catalytic role to respond challenges and opportunities that Asia facing today”.

He said that the continued economic growth of Bangladesh has created enormous demand for energy and power.

He also highlighted the vision of the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and said the government has an ambitious plan to produce 24,000 MW by 2021 and 40,000 MW by 2030.

Bangladesh has installed 4.5 million solar home systems in remote and rural areas. “The goal of Bangladesh is to create an energy mix with a good balance of renewable energy to attain sustainable development,” he said.

Shahriar Alam also met the UAE foreign minister on the sidelines of the ACD meeting.