ISLAMABAD: The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) under its ongoing Global Environment Facility (GEF) funded project titled Sustainable Energy Initiative for Industries in Pakistan, successfully conducted a round of two back-to-back training sessions on Renewable Energy (RE) and Energy Efficiency (EE), by an international expert. The first leg of training was held in the Punjab provincial capital at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI) for vendor and suppliers on market potential and business opportunities for EE and RE Technologies. The second training session was held at a local hotel, which was focused on providing awareness to the top management of the industrial sector on technology and business retrospect and future opportunities. The trainings were attended by more than a 100 professionals including a good number of female participants from various industrial sectors and technology solution providers, including top managers from the industry, consultants and equipment suppliers for EE and RE and also public and private sector organisations. The goal of these trainings was to build capacity of top management on technologies, by highlighting the business cases that could enable the managers to take knowledge base decisions, as well as enabling Vendors & Technology Manufacturers (VTMs) to understand Energy System Optimisation (ESO) opportunities and strategies that can be broadened into value-added services to offer an ESCO approach. During the two day sessions on vendors training, trainer focused on orienting participants towards a valued services mindset and developing the enabling environment. Finally, participants were made aware of the fundamentals of measurements and verification of savings and ways and means to market these services. During the top management awareness session, the trainer introduced the concepts of Enterprise Energy Management and also explained the strategic business drivers and barriers. Finance related issues were also touched upon such as on funding EE and RE projects through value chains, by giving presentations on case studies. LCCI Senior Vice President Khawaja Khawar Rasheed in his address at the vendors training, congratulated UNIDO on the efforts in this project to promote sustainable energy in industrial sector. Ashfaq Ahmed represented Small & Medium Enterprise Authority (SMEDA) and elaborated on UNIDO and SMEDA’s combined efforts to foster RE and EE growth. He stressed upon the greater involvement of the private sector, as well as upon incentivising the industry to have more and more energy survey at their premises. The energy department of the government of Punjab was represented by Abdur Rahman, who on behalf of the energy secretary, congratulated UNIDO for conducting the most imported training on the topic. In his special remarks, LCCI Director Nadia Tahir on behalf of LCCI President Malik Tahir Javed, also appreciated UNIDO on holding these training sessions on the most critical issue of energy. She highlighted the importance of collaboration of UNIDO and LCCI for such initiatives which she said would support the businesses especially to those based on RE and energy efficiency. Earlier, in her welcome remarks, UNIDO Country Representative Nadia Aftab expressed her delight on the active participation of high level delegates from industry. She elaborated upon the goal and mission of UNIDO, while highlighting contribution by UNIDO on sustainable development goal # 9 under the policy of Inclusive & Sustainable Industrial Development (ISID). RE National Project Manager Masroor Ahmad Khan apprised the participants of the key features of the project. He marked the vendors training and top management orientation session as the most important ones at a time when new opportunities were arising in the country. One of the participants from equipment supplier Zorays Solar Chief Consultant Khalid Islam shared that this training had been a source of valuable information regarding business opportunities for its products. Anila Hayat of Green Building Council greatly applauded the efforts of GEF and UNIDO helping to motivate women participation and shared that this training would help her in diversifying her work on energy. Shakarganj Foods Senior Vice President Faraz Ahmed showed his delight in having learned about new things and assured UNIDO about the active collaboration in implementation of energy initiatives in his company. The participants were awarded with certificates on the last day of the vendors training, marking the conclusion of the training session. Published in Daily Times, April 25th 2018.