Knowledge Management and Learning

Regional cooperation in energy offers opportunities for efficient utilization of resources, especially for countries with different endowments in natural resources and distinct industrial bases. It can meet demand for energy, generate development finance, help rationalize investment portfolios, and minimize harmful emissions.

Regional cooperation in energy cuts across three core operations areas of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) — infrastructure, regional cooperation and integration, and environment.

The Regional and Sustainable Development Department (RSDD) and the Energy Community of Practice organized a Regional Energy Cooperation Seminar on 4—5 February 2009. Participants assessed the progress of regional energy cooperation and proposed ways to further intensify ADB’s work to promote sustainable infrastructure across subregions.

Lessons Learned

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• Approaches to regional energy cooperation vary because of differences in resources, endowments, market mix and related interests.
• The different interests of parties make regional energy cooperation particularly complex and time consuming, especially when it comes to technical details of utilities that affect modes of engagement in a multilateral framework.
• In ADB, constraints to more effective regional energy cooperation include (i) the current organizational setup; (ii) systems of incentives; (iii) insufficient client and contact management; and (iv) lack credible data.

Improving ADB’s Regional Energy Cooperation Work

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• Sharpen ADB's role in energy cooperation in each subregion, and develop concrete modes of engagement between and within government departments, countries, and multilateral development banks.
• Increase funding and staff resource allocations through lending and non-lending assistance to regional energy cooperation.
• Help staff meet demand in a changing business environment. This may require tighter inter-departmental coordination on regional cooperation and integration.
• Establish and maintain a unified database on regional energy cooperation by allocating resources in RSDD, the Office of Regional Cooperation and Integration, and field offices for data gathering and information management.
• Intensify interventions through co-financing or lending to the weaker segment of bilateral deals. At the same time, steer bilateral projects towards a multilateral framework to ensure they constitute building blocks of regional energy cooperation.
• Expand the scope of regional energy cooperation beyond mere interconnection of physical infrastructure to include aspects of knowledge management, technology, and equipment manufacturing.