August 25, the conference hall of the Minsk "Planeta" hotel hosted a setup workshop of the Project "Removing Obstacles to Improvement of Energy Efficiency of State-Owned Belarusian Enterprises. Phase B", which is jointly carried out by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the United Nations European Economic Commission (UNEEC) and the Committee for Energy Efficiency at the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus.

The workshop was addressed by Mr. Maksim Vergeichik, Coordinator of UNDP Projects in Belarus, Mr. Leonid Shenets, First Deputy Chairman of the Committee for Energy Efficiency and National Project Coordinator, Mr. Evgeny Nadezhdin, UNEEC Regional Energy Adviser, Mr. Vladimir Voitekhovich, the "Biomass Energy" UNDP/GEF Project Manager, officials from the Ministry for Housing and Communal Services, the "Belinvestbank" Joint-Stock Company, the National Technology Transfer Centre and others. Apart from a direct presentation of the new Project, disclosure of its aims and goals, plans and implementation schedules, the workshop considered the issues of coordination and the experiences of implementing other international projects in the area of energy efficiency in CIS member-states, discussed the problems of strengthening the potentials of energy saving in the state-owned sector of Belarus, including the housing and communal services and the power-generating complex of the country, and dealt with the practice of crediting the energy-saving measures taken at state-owned organizations. The problems of undertaking energy-saving actions at the budget-financed institutions and the prospects of their resolution were also touched upon.

The new joint Project intends to promote establishment of the Energy Centre (or Centres) aimed to cooperate with state-owned organizations of Belarus. The basic activities of such Centres will be as follows:

• Consulting and information services to local authorities and workers of state-run organizations in the area of energy saving, including energy business planning and training
• Assistance in revealing and utilizing the potentials of energy saving in the state-owned sector
• Promotion of attracting investments into the state-run sector to improve the energy efficiency of heating networks and energy sources, including assistance in improving the efficiency of using the funds allocated for the needs of energy saving from the state budget.

The Project also aims at stimulating the motivation of specialists to increase the energy efficiency of the state-run sector, both through designing efficient personal incentive plans to encourage implementation of energy-saving measures, and by means of creating conditions for sustained financing the energy-saving projects from the funds saved as a result of previous steps.

Print version