In recent years, Central Asian countries have formulated plans and strategies, released laws and regulations, and relevant policies to encourage international cooperation on new energy, in an effort to cope with prominent problems including rising costs in exploitation of traditional energy resources, high industrial energy consumption, instable power supplies in some areas and power shortage in rural and remote areas.
Experts pointed out that energy cooperation between China and Kazakhstan concentrates mainly on the traditional energy field. In terms of the new energy development and utilization, the two countries have the similar new energy development strategies and complementary markets, technologies, talents, etc. Their cooperation on the new energy cannot only contribute to their GDP growth, but also help them effectively control carbon dioxide emissions.
In the future, China and Kazakhstan can strengthen technological cooperation and capacity cooperation to build cooperative institution and mechanisms, make innovative arrangements for financing, and forge an all-round service system, and lay a foundation for the energy interconnection, said Yuan Lijun, a research assistant of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Development and Reform Commission.
She put forward five suggestions for the China-Kazakhstan new energy cooperation. The first is to build institutions and mechanisms and advance the cooperation progress. The new energy cooperation between the two countries requires not only investments of equipment, technologies, talents, funds and other factors on a large scale, but also establishment of institutions and mechanisms to guarantee their interests and rights. Central governments of the two countries are advised to strengthen communication and coordination, hold meetings regularly or occasionally to properly resolve problems during the cooperation, so as to eliminate obstacles and build the inter-governmental long-term, mechanism-based partnership. Meanwhile, the two sides are also suggested to build the functional cooperative mechanisms, such as dialogue, coordination and arbitration, information interaction, benefit guarantee and advisory service, and also set up the cooperative mechanisms in fields including infrastructure, trade, investment, fiscal and taxation, and finance.
The second is to properly advance project construction and strengthen capacity cooperation. China and Kazakhstan have already cooperated in energy fields such as nuclear power, solar power and wind power. Now, Kazakhstan is in the stage of expanding its energy facility construction. It has huge demands for new energy modules and facilities and equipment, while China has obvious advantages in R&D and production of these modules and equipment. Under the Belt and Road Initiative, China shall encourage new energy companies to go global and deepen exchanges with other foreign enterprises on capacity cooperation.
The third is to actively carry out technical assistance and transfer and strengthen technical cooperation. Some of China's new energy technologies in research and application have ranked the top in the world. For example, China has rich experience in large-scale application of the distributed energy sources, like solar power. It is necessary to put application of the distributed energy sources in place so as to ease power shortage in Kazakhstan's remote rural areas.
The fourth is to bring forth innovative financing arrangements and increase financial support. The new energy development involves huge amount of funds in steps including technology R&D and innovation, project construction and operation, equipment update and renovation, talent introduction and cultivation, etc. The two countries' joint financing capital pool in new energy cooperation shall be build under the framework of the four initial capital pools including the Silk Road Fund, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the New Development Bank and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Interbank Consortium. Rational financial arrangements should be made to inject funds via multiple channels to the new energy cooperation and ensure the smooth cooperation. Meanwhile, the two countries should also guide financial institutions in the banking industry to build and improve the green credit mechanism, and encourage them to bring forth innovative products and services, and offer financing support to the new energy enterprises and projects.
The fifth is to build an all-round service system and promote cooperative development in depth and breadth. For example, an all-round service system involving governments, enterprises, associations, banks, insurers, national foreign exchange management and diplomacy should be set up. More important, they should build the information liaison mechanism to strengthen information collection and sharing and build a long-term work exchange and coordination platform.
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