---On 30th May, the opening ceremony
of "Training Workshop on SHP Technology for Developing
Countries" ----- one of the Foreign-Aid Projects
of Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), was held in the multi-functional
hall of HRC. At this time in the sunny and picturesque
Hangzhou, 38 officials or professionals from the fields
of water resources, hydropower or other energies in 21
countries met together to celebrate the successful start
of the training program. The participants present at the
ceremony respectively came from Cambodia, Cameroon, Egypt,
Ethiopia, Ghana, Jamaica, Jordan, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritius,
Mongolia, Nigeria, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, Sierra
Leone, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Thailand and Uganda. The
other four participants from Kenya and Myanmar arrived
at HRC on 1st June due to the flight schedule.
Mr. Chen Dayong, Deputy Director General
of Bureau of Rural Hydropower & Electrification Development,
Ministry of Water Resource (MWR) came all the way from
Beijing to attend the opening ceremony and delivered a
speech. On behalf of MWR, Mr Chen firstly extended the
sincere regards to all the participants and wished a complete
success for this training program. Then, Mr. Chen made
a comprehensive overview in terms of the status quo, vision,
technology, experiences and characteristics of SHP development
in China, which would play a significant and instructional
role in the study and exchange to be conducted by the
participants in the training period of 42 days. Director
of HRC, Ms. Cheng Xialei and Honorary Director of HRC,
Mr. Zhu Xiaozhang also delivered their speeches respectively
to warmly welcome all the participants to come to HRC
---- "A family of SHP in the world", and it
was expected that the abundant and in-depth exchange on
SHP technology and experience could be made based on this
helpful platform offered by Chinese Government.
The monitor, Mr. Benjiamin Mategeko
addressed on behalf of all the participants. So far, many
people have no access to electricity and live in the dark
in the developing countries, especially in the least development
countries ------ "Should we allow our people to endlessly
die in such darkness?The answer of HRC and the governments
which sent us here is equivocal 'NO'"------All the
participants recognized that "the economic growth
and energy consumption are tightly intertwined, the increase
of access to electricity in developing countries is the
urgency of now"------ They expressed "we would
pledge to pay attention to every single detail of the
classes they are taking at these classesˇˇ to reduce poverty
and promote a modern standard of living of our people
by making the maximum use of rivers our countries are
blessed with, to increase the needed access to electricity"
The participants extended their thanks
to the Chinese government, their respective governments
and HRC for having them here, and they promised to "give
the best of ourselves to make sure that the investment
you have put in us is maximally productive and beneficial
to the beneficiariesˇ our people." ------ The cordiality
was so impressive and all HRC staff would spare no effort
to ensure a fruitful result from the training program
and we sincerely hope that all of our participants would
enjoy their happy stay in China. (2011-06-03)
