Jakarta, 31 March 2023: Indonesia’s Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources kicked off Indonesia’s 2023 ASEAN Chairmanship 2023 with a meeting on 31 March 2023 to respond to challenges of growing power demand whilst reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in ASEAN by developing interconnectivity.

In a video-taped speech, Prof Hidetoshi Nishimura, President of the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), congratulated the Government of Indonesia as Chair of ASEAN 2023, and especially the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resource for leading the country’s energy sector. He said he was hopeful that Indonesia’s ASEAN Chairmanship 2023 in energy sector would bring the ASEAN region closer to its decarbonisation targets whilst improving its energy security. Other international organisation partners sent similar congratulatory messages through representatives of the ASEAN Secretariat, ASEAN Center for Energy, Energy Transition Partnership, Centre of Policy Development, International Energy Agency, International Renewable Energy Agency, and United Nations Development Programme.

Mr Arifin Tasrif, Indonesia’s Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, delivered the opening remarks and led the ceremonial kick-off of the ASEAN Energy Chairmanship with Mr Jisman Hutajulu, Director General of Electricity. The opening ceremony included a panel discussion with Mr Tran Dong Phuong, ERIA’s Senior Policy Advisor; Mr Aang Darmawan, South East Asia Energy Transition Partnership Country Manager for United Nations Office for Project Services; and Mr Rudi Gobel, Senior Policy Advisor at the Centre for Policy Development in Australia and coordinator for the subsidy reform initiative at the Secretariat of the National Team for the Acceleration for Poverty Reduction.

Mr Phuong noted ERIA’s support, since 2017, for multilateral power trading in the ASEAN Power Grid, specifically technical and advisory services to the Heads of ASEAN Power Utilities/Authorities. The services cover criteria, structures, roles, and requirements to form two important institutions: the ASEAN Power Grid (APG) Generation and Transmission System Planning and the APG Transmission System Operator. He pointed out that the regional power trading aspiration and a coordination institution are the starting point. He disclosed ERIA’s current research on developing a high-level intergovernmental agreement amongst ASEAN Member States to facilitate the formation of the institutions. He announced that stakeholders in the ASEAN power sector would be convened by ERIA to discuss the principles, framework, and terms of the enabling high-level intergovernmental agreement and to seek consensus amongst AMS representatives.