Jakarta. Nepal is nudging Indonesia to invest in its hydropower sector which is already the top source of the South Asian country’s power generation.

Nepalese Foreign Affairs Minister Arzu Rana Deuba made the pitch during bilateral talks with her Indonesian counterpart Retno Marsudi in New York over the weekend. The diplomats were in the US to attend a UN General Assembly session. According to the Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry, the discussions dealt with cooperation in the renewable energy sector, among others.

“Nepali Foreign Minister [Deuba] extended her appreciation towards the stronger bilateral ties and hopes that both countries can further strengthen their partnership. She also called for Indonesian investment in tourism and hydropower development in Nepal,” the ministry said in its statement.

The ministry did not go into details on the scope of cooperation that Nepal was seeking. According to the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), as reported by Reuters last May, the country generates about 2,700 megawatts of electricity of which a large part comes from hydropower. This surpasses the country’s demand of 1,700 megawatts but only makes up less than 7 percent of its total hydro potential.

While Indonesian state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have been expanding their international presence over the years, the country still does not use much of its hydropower. Indonesia is seeking to reach net zero emission by 2060 or sooner. Last October, then-Energy Minister Arifin Tasrif revealed that the archipelagic Indonesia’s hydropower potential stood at 95 gigawatts, but its installed capacity had only reached 6.7 gigawatts. The government is planning to raise the installed hydropower capacity to exceed 10 gigawatts by 2030. 

Abdul Kadir Jailani, a senior official at the Foreign Affairs Ministry, just last week revealed that the Indonesian SOEs were eyeing to increase their investments in the largely untapped markets of South Asia and Central Asia. The energy sector-related investments were among the areas of interest for these SOEs.

The Deuba-Retno meeting also saw the signing of a visa waiver agreement for diplomatic passport holders.