The forthcoming Aquatech China exhibition, which will take place on June 15 to 17 in Shanghai, will host a forum run by Global Water Intelligence to provide visitors with insights into the growing opportunities in industrial water and wastewater treatment and management in the country. This new event, the Industrial Water Leaders Forum, will be held on the second day of the exhibition, taking place at the National Exhibition and Convention Center.
Severe penalties for polluting
China has stepped up its action on industrial pollution, particularly through the country’s “Water Ten Plan” legislation introduced last year. Faced with the prospect of more severe financial penalties for polluting and even jail sentences, industries are responding with investment in their water and wastewater systems. The Industrial Water Leaders Forum will give participants information on the impacts of the legislation and the requirements of key industrial sectors affected by it.
“China has introduced much tougher regulations and at the same time has tightened up on compliance,” says Christopher Gasson of GWI. “This has created much more interest in new technologies to treat the most difficult industrial wastewater.”
Opportunities for foreign technology companies
Speakers at the Industrial Water Leaders Forum will include regulators as well as end user representatives of some of the main industrial sectors of interest. These include industries such as coal to chemicals, petrochemicals, steel, coal fired power stations, textiles and food and beverage. These require advanced technologies in order for their wastewater to be dealt with effectively. “China does not have the expertise in these, so there is a lot more interest in working with foreign technology companies,” comments Gasson.
This free public forum will be followed by a dedicated session of one-to-one meetings that will provide technology suppliers with an opportunity to meet Chinese end users.
Recent changes in the economy in China mean Chinese companies are increasingly interested in developing their businesses internationally, and this will be the focus of an additional special seminar. “Chinese companies have started to make some extraordinarily well-funded acquisitions overseas,” says Gasson. ‘The seminar will allow Chinese companies to learn about the acquisition and growth opportunities in the rest of the world.”
“In the last year or so, the situation has changed both in terms of the traffic of Chinese companies looking outside of the country and in terms of foreign companies seeing new opportunities in China. This whole area of interchanges between China and the rest of the world is really coming alive this year in a way that it hasn’t for some time,” comments Gasson. “We felt that putting on the Industrial Water Leaders Forum at Aquatech China would be a really good opportunity to facilitate that interchange.”
China’s Water Ten Plan targets a range of industries, including paper and pulp, leather, coking, textiles, pesticide production, electro-plating, oil refineries, pharmaceutical and dye production, sulfur, arsenic and non-ferrous metal production, fertilizer, and agricultural food production and processing. Major polluting industries must implement upgrades, while small factories in many of the sectors face closure if they do not carry out the required improvements.
Aquatech China’s focus on industrial water
“Aquatech China already has a strong focus on industrial water and wastewater treatment, including many of the areas targeted by the country’s Water Ten Plan,” says Thijs Jagtenberg, product manager Aquatech China at RAI Amsterdam. “The new Industrial Water Leaders Forum that we are including in the program with Global Water Intelligence adds a valuable extra dimension for companies seeking to expand their business in this exciting market.”
Source: Aquatech China
