KUALA LUMPUR: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has described Malaysia as being "really at the centre” of efforts to accelerate the long-discussed ASEAN Power Grid (APG) initiative, citing growing momentum in regional power trade involving Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam.
ADB regional director and head of the Singapore office Jackie Surtani said the region is finally seeing concrete steps being taken to connect national grids and enable cross-border electricity flows after three decades of discussions on the APG.
"There is a fantastic opportunity at the moment for ASEAN to come together. And the way for ASEAN to come together is to start connecting your grids, and this is what we call the ASEAN Power Grid.
"We have been talking about the APG for 30 years and I am now very encouraged by the momentum we are seeing, particularly here in Malaysia and Indonesia, working closely with Singapore,” he said during a panel session "Building Climate Journey: How Wide Ranging is the Funding Mechanism?” at Sasana Symposium 2025 here today.
Surtani noted that ADB is currently advising the Energy Market Authority of Singapore and pointed to increased discussions on bilateral and trilateral electricity trade.
"There is now a lot of talk about selling power from Malaysia as the country (Malaysia) has an abundance of power, and also about getting power from Vietnam to Malaysia and then to Singapore,” he said.
He urged Malaysia to take advantage of the current regional environment and underscored the importance of strengthening both domestic and cross-border infrastructure.
"What Malaysia can do is to take advantage of the current environment. This power grid is something that our president (in ADB) announced formally that we would like to commit US$10 billion over the next decade to the APG.
"If you look at Europe and the US, their grids are connected. Malaysia may be a bit luckier than some other countries, but do not forget, you need to strengthen your grid as well,” he said.
He said domestic grid strengthening is key, and once that is in place, cross-border connectivity presents a huge opportunity to make regional integration happen. - Bernama
