Recently in Cebu: Leaders of 16 countries at the East Asian summit have pledged to reduce dependence on conventional energy and invest more money in renewable sources, including nuclear power.

Worried by the rising crude oil prices and by the prospect of their needing more affordable energy to fuel rising economic growth rates, the leaders who met at Cebu in the Philippines on Monday, welcomed the clean energy initiative from Japan, which reportedly promised $2 billion in funding for various energy saving projects in member nations.

The 16 nations include the 10 of the ASEAN group, and China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand.

India's efforts

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told Indian journalists that he outlined at the meeting India's efforts to develop renewable sources of energy and bio-diesel as a supplement and part-substitute to petroleum. He also apprised the gathering of the country's focus on nuclear energy.

He said he suggested that financial institutions, both international and regional, finance energy-efficient technologies and hydroelectric projects.

The 16-member group also mulled over the prospects of coming together as an economic community. The group represents nearly half the world's population, an annual economic output almost as large as that of the European Union, and foreign exchange reserves larger than the European Union and the United States combined.

Japan, which has been one of the keenest proponents of an East Asian free trade agreement, won enough support from its partners for the launch of a feasibility study on a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement that would go beyond free trade in goods.

"Arc of advantage"

Dr. Singh told journalists that the objective should be to set in motion a process that would lead to the creation of an East Asia community for an "arc of advantage, which was highlighted in my first visit to the region."

Yet, the economic union may not happen quickly. A detained study on the feasibility and advantages of having such an economic community would take at least two years, according to an official in the Commerce Ministry.

With negotiations having stalled in the World Trade Organisation to get countries across the world to reduce import tariffs, countries in East Asia have been busily doing free trade deals with one another and with regional groups such as ASEAN.

India has joined the bandwagon, but is a good way behind China. Even as it labours over the agreement on trade in goods with ASEAN that will not be signed before July this year, China on Sunday inked the higher order agreement with ASEAN that opens up trade in services from July. The agreement on trade in goods has been operational for a year.

"We are a late starter in this process," Dr. Singh conceded at a press conference on board the aircraft bringing him back from Cebu on Monday. "The destination is the same ... but it will take time before we reach there. We are moving at a pace which our system can sustain."

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