New | China calls for three common energy markets to be set up in Asia

Beijing seeks establishment of three cooperatives in the region, offering to help build low-cost infrastructure in bid to obtain cheap power sources

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China is the world's number one energy consumer. Photo: AFP

Published: 12:15am, 17 Jun 2015Updated: 12:19am, 17 Jun 2015

China is seeking to set up three common energy markets in Asia to help meet its need for cheap power sources and facilitate regional economic development.

The plan, which capitalises on President Xi Jinping's "One Belt, One Road" initiative to foster closer economic cooperation in Asia, Europe and Africa, is highly feasible, according to a report by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Released at the Global Forum on Energy Security in Beijing on Monday, the report calls for three common energy markets to be set up - in Northeast Asia, Central Asia and Southeast Asia.

"The formation of common energy markets through a shared financial platform is crucial," the academy's vice-president Cai Fang was quoted by Thepaper.cn as saying, as he urged greater currency and financial cooperation between China and the nations along the new Silk Road economic belt.

"This is very important. We can learn from the experience of North America and the European Union," he said.

Cai noted that China had become the world's largest consumer of energy and that it was therefore critical for the country to establish common markets to obtain cheap energy sources.

Beijing could help build convenient, low-cost transport infrastructure within the markets to facilitate the trade in energy among the countries, he said.