China's Environment Protection Industry Getting Stronger

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, May 24, 2002

China's Environment Protection Industry Getting Stronger

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The output value of China's environmental protection industry may hit 26.4 billion U.S. dollars by 2005 and China will become a major exporter of environmental protection technology by 2010, says a study report released Thursday in Beijing.

"This marks that China is becoming an important player in the world's environmental protection market," said Helmut Kaiser, president of the German-based Helmut Kaiser Consultancy, which has won acclaim in the European life-science industry for its authoritative reports.

As the prediction is more optimistic than the previous estimate of "200 billion yuan" (24.1 billion U.S. dollars) by China's State Economic and Trade Commission (SETC), Kaiser said, "Our report is based on a comprehensive analysis of the environmental protection market in China, Asia and the world at large."

Favorable conditions to improve environment

He also held that China, India and Russia are the three main countries in the world who share a common advantage in developing highly-advanced environmental protection technology.

"They all have a booming economy, a burgeoning environmental protection industry and diversified labor resources which can meet the production requirements from the low-end maintenance of equipment to the high-end development and research of highly-advanced environmental protection technology," he said.

The special advantage for China was the country's improving environmental protection awareness which was caused by its entry to the World Trade Organization and Beijing's successful bid for the 2008 Olympic Games.

"That will bring a tremendous positive influence on the country's environmental protection industry," he added.

Advanced technology

To boost the sector, China recently issued a development program for its environmental industry which includes a 700 billion-plus-yuan investment (84.34 billion U.S. dollars) between 2001 and 2005 to improve its ecology and secure an annual growth rate of 15 percent for the environmental protection sector.

"If everything goes smoothly and the country continues to input in the development and utilization of advanced environmental technology," the report says, "some 20% of the Asian market and 5% of the world's will be grabbed by China by 2010."

According to the study, technology most in need now includes the treatment of waste water, the utilization of drinking water resources, the treatment of wastes and air cleaning.

Drinking water resources tops the problem

Among them, the utilization of drinking water resources ranks top as only 40 percent of the world's population of 6.3 billion can acquire drinking water every day and some 25 percent have none.

The utilization of water resources can also have a direct impact on the development potential of life science industries such as foodstuffs, pharmaceuticals and biological engineering.

"China has accumulated certain experiences in the development of drinking water," says the report.

Over the past two decades, some 350 overseas enterprises have entered China, specializing in businesses related to the exploitation and utilization of water resources. By 2010, the number will rise to 6,000 and nearly 4 million new job opportunities will be created.

The report predicts that in 2010 the combined market value of waste water treatment and the development of drinking water resources will rise to 18 billion U.S. dollars from the existing 7.5 billion.

Statistics from the SETC reveal that between 1996 and 2000, there were 10,000 enterprises in China in environmental protection industry employing 1.8 million people. The country's total output value from the industry in 2000 was more than 108 billion yuan (13.01 billion U.S. dollars).

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