Planning Minister Abdul Mannan has said energy efficiency is essential for the country’s industries to sustain the global competition.

The minister made the remarks while addressing a webinar titled “Energy Efficiency Financing”, organised by Energy and Power magazine on Tuesday.

He said efficiency is essential not only for energy or industrial sectors, but also for all the sectors.

Held with magazine editor Mollah Amzad Hossain in the chair, the seminar was also addressed by Bangladesh Bank general manager KM Millat, Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development Authority (Sreda) director Farzana Montez, and GIZ programme coordinator Al Modabbir Bin Alam.

The minister said the Western countries are in an advance position when it comes to technological development and Bangladesh should follow them in taking advantage of the technology. “We should cooperate with them instead of ignoring them.”

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Farzana Momtaz said there is huge scope for improving energy efficiency in industrial sector and Sreda has been working on it.

She mentioned that Sreda has been implementing energy efficiency projects in industrial sector with financial support from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

“Industries could take soft loan from JICA funds to replace their inefficient machinery with efficient ones,” she said, adding that her organisation also engaged in monitoring energy efficiency activities in industries.

KM Millat said many industries are getting benefits from central bank’s refinancing scheme by taking green financing facilities.

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“But it needs more awareness among the industry owners to utilize the facilities to make their ventures more energy efficient,” he added.

Al Modabbir Bin Anam said if a single unit of power is saved through emerge efficiency mechanism it creates spillover effects on the economy.

It plays a vital role in reducing the production costs as well as benefits others by creating more opportunities in consuming electricity, he observed.