THERE is always a ray of hope out of gloom-and-doom situation. And there always exist several rays of hope if the world leaders are sincerely interested in kick-starting the revival of economy.

It is thus time to move away from endless debates, surveys and analysis over the risk of prolonged global slow-down or slow pace of global recovery and look for new growth opportunities.

One such opportunity that deserves serious consideration and a big push is the setting up of cross-border pipelines and power transmission lines including submarine cables.

Very few such projects actually get off the drawing board for varied reasons. These include resource nationalism which has lately hit the Mecca of Free trade, the United States, where there is strong opposition to export of natural gas and coal.

Another major reason is the geo-politics that include economic sanctions by the West against Iran for its refusal to give up its nuclear programme and the West's war with Taliban and other such non-sovereign entities. The other factors hampering take-off of energy infrastructure projects include lack of comprehensive global framework for energy trade and segmentation of governance of energy in many countries.

The global community should understand that the reasons for global economic slow-down are as more political and less economic.

The world can achieve sustained, low-carbon, robust growthif the world leaders agree to back a dozen mega projects such as the proposed Asian Super Grid (ASG).

This project, for which a feasibility study has been commissioned, envisage setting up of renewable energy projects on a gigantic scale in Mongolia's Gobi Desert and a High-Voltage Direct Current Transmission (HVDC) for export of electricity from Gobi to South Korea, China, Russia and Japan. Mongolia's renewable energy potential is estimated at a mind-blowing 2.6 million megawatt.

This reminds one of Desertec, a project that was announced in late 2011 to harness solar potential of Sahara desert to generate power for transmission through submarine cables to Europe. The $ 560-billion project has not really taken off.

A few such big-ticket projects can be conceived in Arab and African countries for generating and distributing solar and wind power not only within these countries through grid interconnections but also exporting it to Europe through undersea cables.

Similarly, the world leaders should expedite proposed regional gas pipeline projects such as Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) that will carry natural gas from the giant Shah Deniz II field in Azerbaijan to Greece, Albania and across the Adriatic Sea to Southern Italy and further to Western Europe. Conceived in 2003, the delayed project is now expected to go on stream in 2017/18.

The global community also ought to revive Iran-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline and Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India(TAPI).

To these projects, one may add the under-explored prospects for regional slurry pipelines that can haul minerals such as iron ore and coal to projects across the borders.

Of course, one should not overlook offshore wind and solar power projects that supply electricity from uninhabited islands through submarine cables to the mainlands. All such initiatives are the key to inclusive global growth and prosperity. They would improve and diversify the energy security. They would catalyze economic development by creating huge demand for steel, aluminium, cement, copper and other materials.

These energy infrastructure projects can provide energy in diverse forms to markets that are deficient or starved of energy. In India, for instance, investments worth several billion dollars sunk in power generation, fertilizer, steel and other plants is not yielding any return due to chronic and worsening shortages of gas, coal and electricity.

Above all, pipelines and transmission lines would generate directly and indirectly millions and millions of jobs across the globe. And once there is widespread economic growth across the countries, the rise in tax and non-tax revenue cannot lag behind. All such knock-on effects would, of course, stimulate global trade and investments in non-energy sectors too.

So instead of haggling over agricultural subsidies, opening up of certain services, etc., the participants at WTO meetings should focus on the cross-border energy trading infrastructure.

With so many win-win factors, it is but natural to pin high hopes on the22nd World Energy Congress (WEC) at Daegu in South Korea in October andthe 9th Ministerial Conference at Bali in Indonesia focus on pipelines and transmission lines as the key to global economic revival, prosperity and peace. One can here commend WEC's theme "Securing Tomorrow's Energy Today."

These two forums should create a consensus for creating a global mandatory-cum-financing framework for spawning energy infrastructure projects. These initiatives require multiple funding by multiple stakeholders. G20, OECD, the World Bank and other such entities have to put their act together to create long-term solutions for sustainable global growth.

It is heartening to find that there is already a global quest for a new world energy deal at professional and academic levels as is evident from the presentations at the Workshop on the Role of Intergovernmental Agreements in Energy Policy organized at Geneva under the aegis of Brussels-based Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) & WTO on 29 April 2013.

As put by Prof. Dr. Thomas Cottier, Managing Director of the World Trade Institute made his presentation at the workshop, "Framework Agreement on Energy is an option worth exploring in WTO."

At the same workshop, Ms. MireilleCossy, Counsellor, Services Division, WTO, noted that Few GATS commitments have been undertaken so far on energy transportation services. These sectors have also remained on the sidelines of the energy services negotiations."

The discussion at WTO should ideally be preceded by reconciliation between conflicting forces. The US for instance should give up its opposition to Iran-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline. Uncle Sam and European Union should realize that economic sanctions against Iran hurt them directly or indirectly. Similarly, non-sovereign forces such as Taliban in Afghanistan and its variants in

Pakistan should keep energy infrastructure projects out of the ambit of their armed struggle. Leave aside conflict zones, opportunities for cross-border energy trade are available aplenty in other regions.

The Asian Economic Integration Monitor (AEIM) released by Asian Development Bank (ADB) in March this year is worth citing here. AEIM says: "A $6 billion worth ASEAN Power Grid-with nine interconnections to be completed by 2015-should save more than $600 million at current electricity prices."

According to the report, new regional infrastructure in Asia is estimated to cost $320 billion during 2010-2020. Of this total, about half is needed for regional transport and logistics, while the rest covers cross-border infrastructure that moves power from surplus to deficit economies.

Even bilateral cross-border projects such as power transmission between India and Bangaldesh and between India and hydro resources-endowed Nepal can create hotspots of rapid economic growth in the world.

The maiden inter-connection lines between India and its two neighbours are now belatedly taking shape. Similarly, a feasibility study for interconnection of India and Sri Lanka electricity grids was completed towards 2012-end.

Let such modest projects serve as the building blocks for cross-country mega projects in the energy infrastructure domain.