4th Regional JODI Training Workshop for Asia Pacific Countries
10-12 September 2008 | Bangkok, Thailand
The JODI Regional Training Workshop for oil statisticians from Asia Pacific Countries and Economies opens today in Bangkok.
The Bangkok's training workshop is part of the IEF Secretariat and its JODI partner organisations efforts to promote JODI and improve the quality of oil market data. JODI is aiming at providing oil market analysts with the best assessment possible of oil market situation on monthly basis. Hence, national administrations have a crucial role in collecting and releasing complete and accurate oil data.
Expert speakers from APEC, IEA, and IEF Secretariat will address 37 officials in charge of energy data collection from Brunei, Hong Kong (China), Chinese Taipei, Indonesia, Korea, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The Asia-Pacific JODI training workshop was inaugurated by Dr. Twarath Sutabutr, Director Policy and Strategy Coordination Office, Ministry of Energy of Thailand, Dr. Said Nachet, Energy Director, International Energy Forum Secretariat and Mr. Shigeru Kimura, Director, Institute of Energy Economics of Japan.
Dr. Sutabutr reaffirmed the "support of Thailand to the Joint Oil Data Initiative (JODI) as an international initiative that addresses investor uncertainty" adding that "energy cooperation through JODI ... will bring prosperity and sustainable development ... in the (Asia Pacific) region."
Dr. Nachet thanked Thailand for facilitating preparation of the JODI training for Asia Pacific Countries and Economies and the Government of Japan for providing financial support to the IEF Secretariat effort to promote JODI among APEC Countries and Economies. He also underlined the support of JODI expressed by International Energy Forum Ministers on repeated occasions and the importance of transparency and exchange of data for market predictability.
High level political support to JODI has also being echoed Asian contexts such as the Second Asian Energy Ministerial Roundtable held in Riyadh in May 2007, the G20 Finance Ministers in November 2007 and the 8th Meeting of APEC Energy Ministers in May 2007.
Mr. Kimura also thanked Thailand for its excellent support for this Fourth JODI training workshop and appreciated all the participants for attending. He indicated that increasing oil market transparency is still needed and that improvement of the JODI data quality in Asia Pacific region will benefit from the present training workshop.
The Joint Oil Data Initiative, coordinated by the IEF Secretariat with participation of APEC, EU, IEA, OLADE, OPEC and the UN, is a concrete outcome of the producer-consumer dialogue. More than 90 countries/economies, accounting for more than 90 % of global oil production and demand are now providing national oil data to JODI.