ECCJ held the FY2022 1st online meeting relating to energy conservation support with Malaysia
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Under the instruction and financial support of the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy, the Energy Conservation Center, Japan (ECCJ) has been implementing a bilateral energy conservation cooperation project with Malaysia which also continued in FY2022. On April 28, 2022, ECCJ held the 1st online meeting of FY2022 with the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources (MENR) and other Malaysian institutions. During the meeting, discussions were held and agreements reached relating to the plans for activities in the current fiscal year including the dispatch of experts, invited training in Japan, and holding of online meetings and seminars.
1. Meeting attendees:
1) Malaysian side: Total of seven persons, comprising Dr. Ida Syahrina Shukor, Undersecretary, Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources (MENR/KeTSA) and two other representatives, Mr. Steve Anthony Lojuntin, Director, Sustainable Energy Development Authority (SEDA) and one other representative, and Mr. Faiz Yusoff, Assistant Director, Energy Commission (EC) and one other representative
2) Japanese side: Five persons from the ECCJ International Cooperation Division
2. Overview of results: Regarding the activities planned for the current fiscal year, the following items were discussed and confirmed.
1) It is planned to hold online meetings a total of four times, in April, July, and September this year and in January next year.
2) It is planned to hold a one-day online seminar in August relating to EC Guidelines and the pilot project, and the requirements for the target seminar participants were indicated by the Japanese side.
3) It is planned to dispatch experts relating to the pilot project in January next year. However, if situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic make the overseas dispatch of experts difficult, the Japanese side requested that the implementation period should be put off until the following fiscal year while beginning contacts and interchanges with the Malaysian companies using an online format. In response to this request, opinions were received from the Malaysian side that because companies have only just begun to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, the most important issue for the time being is to ensure the companies’ survival. Although considerations will be made into realizing the activity during the second half of the year while monitoring the conditions, it was decided that investigations should first be conducted by the Malaysian side to determine whether there were companies which would be interested to participate in the activities.
4) It is planned to implement invited training in Japan in November. However, in case it is difficult to hold the training in a face-to-face format, an online format will be used instead. Additionally, it is planned that the training contents will be focused on practical training, including the measurement and auditing of heat equipment, to target energy auditors. The latest energy conservation technologies, successful case studies, and ECCJ’s professional energy auditor system will be also introduced.
5) Regarding the situation of formulating energy efficiency & conservation act in Malaysia, the Malaysian side provided the information that the period for submitting the draft act to the Malaysian parliament was planned for July 2022.
6) As the COVID-19 infection situation in Malaysia has greatly improved, and the restrictions on receiving overseas visitors have been eased from April, we continue to closely monitor the situation going forward to determine the impacts on the above activities.