Director General of Power Cell Engineer Mohammad Hossain has been elected Chair of the United Nations’ Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP) Committee on Energy for a two-year term.
This Committee is an important intergovernmental platform to facilitate regional energy cooperation. The election was held during the committee's second session in Bangkok, Thailand recently, official said.
After elected Chair, Mohammad Hossain said, “This is a remarkable moment for me. I have been elected as the Chair of the UN-ESCAP Committee on Energy. I have replaced Ajith P Perara, Deputy Minister of Sri Lanka.”
‘It was indeed a successful participation from Bangladesh. Please pray for me,’ Mr. Hossain added.
This committee, formed as part of an ESCAP ministerial declaration to implement the SDGs, is an important intergovernmental platform to facilitate regional energy cooperation.
The vice-chairs are: Fengquan An. Dy DG, dept. of Intl. Cooperation, China; Talyat Aliev, deputy head of Intl. Cooperation, Russian Federation; Sarawut Kaewtathip, Dy Permanent Secretary, Min of Energy, Thailand; and Avafoa Irata, CEO, M/O Public Utilities and Infrastructure, Tuvalu.
The Committee is comprised of 55 member states, 9 Associate members, 22 permanent observers and 24 intergovernmental organizations etc.
The Committee on Energy was established by the Commission at its seventy-first session through resolution 71/1 on restructuring the conference structure of the Commission to be fit for the evolving post-2015 development agenda. The first session of Committee on Energy was held on 17-19 January 2017, and it will be held every other year respectively.