"India has a well-developed energy sector. A large number of our projects and entities can compete with the best in the world. We are in a position to share the state-of-the-art technologies in the energy sector with our neighbours in the region", Indian Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said.

Inaugurating the Saarc Energy Ministers' Conference here, he said sharing best practices in proven technologies could be considered in harnessing renewable sources of energy and promoting energy- efficient programmes.

Shinde said Saarc must accelerate its efforts for development of natural gas pipelines within the region and also from outside the region in view of South Asia's heavy dependence on oil and gas import to meet its energy needs.

He said developing eletrcicity grid connectivity is an essential step for exploitation of energy resources particularly in hydro power sector.

India has operational grid interconnections with Nepal and Bhutan and technical studies are underway on feasibility of similar arrangements with Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, Shinde said.

He said development of hydropower in Saarc has been identified as one of the high prirority areas because this has the potential of meeting the energy needs of the region in a cost effective and sustaiable manner.

Shinde stressed the need for inviting private investment in energy sector. "We need to work for facilitating private investments in energy projects", he said.

Bangladesh's Energy Advisor Tapan Chowdhury attended the conference among other ministers from the region.