Clean energy pact will help Singapore firms enter Indonesia

Jessica Cheam, Straits Times 19 Nov 09;

SINGAPORE companies involved in the clean energy sector could soon gain easier access to the huge Indonesian market, thanks to a clean energy pact inked yesterday.

The Sustainable Energy Association of Singapore (Seas) inked a Memorandum of Understanding with the Sustainable Energy Association of Indonesia yesterday to collaborate on sustainable, renewable and energy efficiency issues.

Seas chairman Edwin Khew said yesterday that as Singapore's market size was limited, it is crucial for firms to be able to gain access into the bigger, neighbouring markets.

'Indonesia has a lot of potential for clean energy projects and Singapore can help develop this sector by providing a one-stop shop for technology, services, and finance,' he said.

Being home to the largest collection of banks, clean technology funds and green funds in Asia, Singapore can provide equity and debt for Asian clean energy projects, he added.

The former nominated MP noted that the sector is dominated by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) rather than multinationals, and that the only way to bring SMEs together is through forging associations across Asia.

'This is where Singapore can play a regional role,' he said.

The MOU was signed yesterday at the opening of the three-day Clean Energy Expo Asia trade fair and conference, which forms part of the Singapore International Energy Week.

Guest speaker Michael Liebreich, chairman and chief executive of research firm New Energy Finance, said Singapore was well positioned to tap the US$100 billion-worth (S$139 billion) of clean investment money that flowed into Asia each year.

'Singapore can play the same role as London. Singapore is also a financing centre, plus a technology and logistics hub. A lot of that US$100 billion will go through Singapore,' he said.

The gathering momentum of clean energy investment has been made evident by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), which has announced that it is poised to sharply increase lending for clean energy projects in the Asia-Pacific region by 2013.

Its deputy director-general for regional and sustainable development, Woochong Um, told The Straits Times that the bank aims to almost double annual lending for clean energy projects from about US$1.2 billion this year to US$2 billion by 2013.

And it is set to reduce lending to fossil-fuel projects.

The bank may well up its share of clean energy lending from less than half in 2005 to 80 per cent of its total energy lending programme in 2013, he added.

The Seas and ADB are working together to promote clean energy in Asia under a programme called Energy for All (E4All), which aims to provide energy access to 100 million people by 2015 using low carbon technologies.