Brief Summary on the First Days of the World Energy Congress Daegu 2013

On Sunday, October 13, Daegu, South Korea, hosted the official opening ceremony of 22nd World Energy Congress Daegu 2013. The ceremony was attended by Pierre Gadonneix, Chair of the World Energy Council, Hwan-eik Cho, Chairman of the WEC Organizing Committee, and Jung Hongwon, Prime Minister of South Korea.

In his opening speech Hwan-eik Cho emphasized the importance of the Congress both for individual energy workers and large international-scale companies as well as governmental institutions. “Setting the role of energy in global economic development is the prior task of the energy leaders. Through this congress, we must find the middle ground for the complex and urgent problem for procuring future energy and the prior tasks to these problems.”, said Pierre Gadonneix in his introductory speech.

On October 14 the ceremonial opening of the stand of the Russian Ministry of Energy was held in the exhibition hall. The official delegation of the Ministry of Energy was greeted by K.V. Vnukov, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Republic of Korea, R.R. Talipov, Head of the Department of Oil and Gas Production and Transportation, the Ministry of Energy of Russia, and Hee-Beom Lee, former Minister of Energy of the Republic of Korea, Chairman of the Korea Employers’ Federation. The stand of the Russian Ministry of Energy hosted the presentation of a special English edition of the magazine “ELECTRIC POWER. Transmission and Distribution” dedicated to the development prospects of the power industry of Russia.

On the same day, representatives of the Russian delegation, Ekaterina Guseva, the editor-in-chief of the magazine “ELECTRIC POWER. Transmission and Distribution” being among them, attended the opening ceremony of the International Symposium on Gas Energy and PNG in Samcheok by invitation of the Consul-General of the Russian Federation in the Republic of Korea Jung Heon. The Korean side at the opening ceremony was represented by Kim Dae Soo, Mayor of Samcheok; Song-Ho Shin, President of the Kangwon National University; Deputy Governor of Gangwon Province and other officials. The symposium was devoted to discussions of one of the most important joint strategic projects of Russia and Korea – construction of a gas main pipeline from Vladivostok to South Korea, with the capacity of about 300000 tons per year. All participants of the opening ceremony were unanimous in their belief that the implementation of this project would promote strengthening of the relationships between the countries of South-Eastern Asia and ensure improvement of the energy security not only of Gangwon Province, but of the Republic of Korea as a whole.

On October 15 participants of WEC-2013 went on to discuss the topical issues in the field of determining more promising energy resources, the most efficient models of energy markets and financing methods for energy projects. During the discussions great attention was paid to factors of international cooperation, security and innovative development in main sectors of the power industry.

Throughout the duration of the Congress one could visit the specialized exhibition of innovative equipment and solutions for power industry, with the largest industry-leading international companies as main exhibitors. On October 15 Anton Inyutsin, Deputy of Minister of Energy of RF, attended the WEC-2013 exhibition on a working visit. He spoke about the high levels of the event arrangement and preparation of the participants.

On Wednesday, October 16, the ‘Day of Russia’ is to be held in the course of the Congress, where leaders of the RF Ministry of Energy and largest Russian power companies will speak to the invited guests about the main directions of the Russian power industry development, major investment projects and latest achievements in this field.

The magazine “ELECTRIC POWER. Transmission and Distribution” is determined to further inform its readers about all the events to take place at the World Energy Congress Daegu 2013. A detailed report on all the events and analysis of the developed solutions will be published in the next issue of the magazine – № 6 (21), November-December, 2013.