Sarawak Energy and Hydro-Québec have agreed a memorandum of understanding to share experiences and conduct technical exchanges on hydropower development.

In the video above, Dr Chen Shiun, general manager of research and development at Sarawak Energy, discusses the partnership.

He says: "We think we will be able to learn a lot from the experience in terms of how to address environmental and social issues. This is why we have decided to form a memorandum of understanding – to share information.

"From the Hydro-Québec side, I think that they see that Sarawak has been active in the tropics. In the future there will be many projects in this kind of climate, and they will want to make an effort to contribute in generating new knowledge."

The two companies formed a relationship after meeting at a world congress organised by the International Hydropower Association in Brazil, in 2011. Now that exchanges have grown, the memorandum provides a more formal framework to conduct exchanges on greenhouse gas research profiles of reservoirs, enviornmental follow-up efforts and studies in aquatic and terrestrial biodiversity, geomorphology and water quality.

The memorandum is for an initial period of three years, but Dr Chen Shiun says that following on from it "maybe we will discover something else we can share".