Economy

China's green industry boosts inward investment

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-11-27 09:53

BEIJING - Partly as a response to the global climate challenge, China's booming green industry has become the engine that boosts global economic cooperation and encourages investment into the country.

"We are vigorously seeking international cooperation in various fields of green technology," said Jiang Yaoping, vice-minister of commerce.

So far, China has signed Memoranda of Understanding with many countries, including the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Italy, Finland, Canada and Germany, to co-develop the country's green economy, Jiang said.

He said the ministry is working with relevant government agencies on the revision of the catalog for the encouragement of foreign investment industries, so that overseas investments will be encouraged to flow into emerging and energy-conserving industries, such as the advanced manufacturing sector, and participate in the transformation and upgrading of China's traditional industries.

"We can see China is taking very serious steps in developing clean technologies. The prospect for China's (green technology) market will be very bright and Finnish companies' know-how will be quite profitable," said Erkki Virtanen, permanent secretary of Finland's Ministry of Employment and Economy.

Finland is a country renowned for advanced green technologies in sectors such as processing, renewable energy and environmental measuring.

Over recent years, the country has earmarked 4 percent of its GDP to the research and development of clean technologies, said Virtanen.

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Against this backdrop, Pac-Solution Ltd, a Finnish water treatment company, is seeing its business take off in the Chinese market. "We are now the only Finnish company operating in China in this specialized area and the market environment is quite favorable," said Jaakko Helenius, its chief executive officer.

The company set up an office in China two years ago. Currently, it is running pilot programs in Russia and Brazil, and its pilot program in Anhui province will begin in two months, he said.

In 2009, 35 percent of the company's revenue came from China, and within the next three to five years, revenue earned in the Chinese market is expected to reach between 15 million euros ($19 million) to 20 million euros, "which is very achievable", Helenius added.

Meanwhile, Det Norske Veritas (China) Co, a Norway-based classification society and risk management provider has similar expectations.

In 2009, revenue from China's market accounted for 10 percent of the Norwegian company's overall business revenue, and 30 percent of its revenue in China is from the green industry.