1. (U) Summary: After a follow-up conversation with Secretary
General of the Ministry of Energy, Farah Ali Ainan, on the
NARUC Utility Regulators Conference in Bamako, Mali, Farah
approached PolOff on possible U.S. assistance in the energy
and mining sectors. End Summary.



2. (U) Secretary General of the Ministry of Energy, Farah Ali
Ainan, said his recent trip to Mali to attend the Regional
Coordination Conference and Workshop on Purchase Power
Agreements and Contract, organized by the National
Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners and USAID,
will prove highly beneficial in many future ventures of the
Djiboutian government. Farah commented that he and his
colleague, Aboulkader Oudoum Abdallah, Head of Climate Change
and Clean Development at the Ministry of Environment, learned
an exceptional amount about negotiations with private
companies. He added that the information learned in Mali
will aid the Government of Djibouti in negotiating several
future projects, including geothermal energy and exploration
of mineral resources.



3. (U) However, Farah continued, the Ministry of Energy is
one of the poorest among the Djiboutian ministries and
infrastructure for studying and developing a national energy
plan is severely lacking. Highest on Farah's list of the
Energy Ministry's needs was human resources and technical
training. Farah outlined a plan for the energy sector,
which would provide the Government a better overview of
renewable energy possibilities. Farah said that the Ministry
has come up with several ideas, but lacks the scientific
training, as well as the funding to carry them out. Among
his ideas was setting up an Energy Commission that could help
guide the Government and the power company, Electricite de
Djibouti, in the usage and development of Djibouti's
potential energy sources. Farah added finally that the
mining sector was another unexploited resource that Djibouti
possesses and inquired about programs that could help develop
the industry. Djibouti has fair quantities of salt, gypsum,
perlite and dytomite.
RAGSDALE