Chinese Delegation Visits Scotland

 

First Minister Alex Salmond welcomed a senior government and industry delegation from China, led by Vice-Minister Liu Qi of the country’s National Energy Administration (NEA), during a visit to learn more about Scotland’s offshore wind industry.

The industry mission, which includes Shi Lishan, NEA Deputy Director General, and leading Chinese utility companies, had an hour-long meeting in Aberdeenshire with the First Minister and officials from the Scottish Government and Scottish Development International (SDI), which hosted the delegation.

Speaking afterwards the First Minister said: “The Scottish Government remains committed to working with the Chinese Government to develop offshore wind both here and in China and I was delighted to welcome Vice Minister Liu Qi and the rest of the delegation.

“As we move forward with our own plans to develop up to 10 Gigawatts of offshore wind in Scottish waters by 2020, I made clear to our visitors that we are keen to assist China in the achievement of its own huge ambitions for rapid growth in this sector, through the sharing of best practice and cost-reduction techniques.

“There is a great deal of advantage to be gained from our two nations collaborating in the development of offshore wind, both here in Scotland and in China, and I hope that the visit by the Chinese delegation is just the start of a long and fruitful dialogue on this and other areas of clean energy development.

“Next week will be an important one for our renewables industry, as Edinburgh hosts the second Scottish Low Carbon Investment Conference, where energy and finance industry executives will come together with the public sector to examine the opportunities presented by the growth in green energy generation, as well as smarter energy demand management and other clean technologies.”

Commenting after the meeting, Vice-Minister Liu Qi said: “The reason I have come to Scotland today is because we want to learn from the Scottish experience and expertise in offshore wind farms and also to boost co-operation between Scotland and China in this field. And this will also help promote the agenda of renewable energy and environmental protection. Scotland has made a huge amount of achievement in terms of combating climate change, especially by utilising renewable energy and, especially in the field of offshore wind technology, Scotland is leading the world.”

SDI chief executive Anne MacColl, commented: “As a nation, Scotland has significant expertise in offshore wind developments, thanks to our world-class universities, our dynamic renewable energy industry and our wealth of natural resource. By hosting the Chinese delegation to Scotland this week we are taking another step towards building strategic links with Chinese government and industry leaders, and welcome this opportunity to engage with them further on the strength of our Scottish companies and our growth sectors, and what Scotland has to offer as potential partners.”

Today’s meeting comes ahead of a week-long trade mission, to be led by the First Minister, to the People’s Republic of China and Hong Kong in December. The official visit from December 3-11 was announced by the First Minister yesterday while attending a reception held at the Chinese consulate in Edinburgh to celebrate China’s forthcoming National Day on October 1.

[mappress]

Source: scotland, September 27, 2011