Published: Tuesday June 2, 2009 MYT 6:06:00 PM
M’sia to look to S. Korea for green and nuclear technologies
By LEONG SHEN-LI
JEJU (SOUTH KOREA): Malaysia is keen to look to South Korea to learn from its experiences in developing green technology and small nuclear reactors as a source of energy, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said.
He said the development of low carbon green technology was part of Malaysia's agenda which was reflected in the setting up of the Energy, Green Technology and Water Ministry.
"I saw many new and interesting innovations here which can have a huge potential application in Malaysia," he told the Malaysian after his meeting with South Korean presideng Lee Myung-Bak here.
Najib is here to attend the two-day Asean-South Korea Commemorative Summit which ended Tuesday.
He visited the "Green Asia, Green Growth" exhibition which was being held in conjunction with the summit.
The exhibition showcased South Korea's efforts to achieve low carbon green growth.
He said among the applications which could be used in Malaysia included the cleaning up of rivers and membrane technology to purify water.
"South Korea's river clean up efforts have generated thousands of jobs and the cost to clean up four major rivers have come up to about US$50mil (RM174.4mil), which is not too high a sum," he said.
On the use of nuclear power, Najib said South Korea has successfully built small-scale reactors which were safe and could be located next to urban areas.
He said 40% of South Korea's energy needs were being provided by nuclear power.
"The small-scale reactors have a capacity of between 200MW and 300MW and I was told they cost about a third of that of coal power stations," he said, adding that this was something for Malaysia to look into.
He would ask Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Datuk Peter Chin and Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Dr Maximus Ongkili to visit South Korea as soon as possible to see how green and nuclear technologies could be used in Malaysia.
Asked about the controversy surrounding the use of nuclear technology, Najib said nuclear reactors were safe and green as they had zero emissions.
"The alternative would be to use fossil fuel like coal which has a lot of emissions," he said, adding that the South Korean experience with nuclear power had shown that it was very safe.
On the Asean-South Korea summit, Najib said Malaysia had agreed to the call for anexpansion of the Asean Bond Market during its final session Tuesday.
He said the use of bonds has successful at the domestic level in Malaysia.
"We will need to set up a mechanism which includes the existence of guarantees for the Asean Bond Market to operate," he said.
Other issues which the summit touched on were food security and climate change.
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