A booming industry with an enormous market potential is emerging as a byproduct of the government's increasing concerns with environmental protection.
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Analysts predict that the environment protection industry in China will grow by over 15 percent annually in the following five years. In 2010, the value of the industry will hit 250 billion yuan (30 billion US dollars) from the current 70 billion (8.5 billion US dollars).
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In the coming decade, Chinese cities will need more technologies and devices to treat sewage, polluted air, and garbage, as prefigured by experts.
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Among the 700 main cities in China, environmental protection departments are capable of treating only 20 percent of the sewage and 10 percent of solid trash. Within five years, their treatment capacity is required to reach 50 percent or even higher.
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Meanwhile, the government will aid research on new clean energy to replace the traditional ones.
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The government spent 10 billion yuan (1.2 billion US dollars) on environmental protection this year, up nearly 25 percent from last year. It has planned to put about 40 billion yuan (4.8 billion US dollars) into environmental protection in the coming five years.
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The Chinese government will still encourage the development of enterprises which provide equipment and technologies for environmental protection by offering preferential policies.
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China still welcome investment and cooperation from overseas partners in this field, said Xie Zhenhua, who is in charge of the State Environmental Protection Administration.
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Experts say that the environmental protection industry is likely to become another economic growth point in China.
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So far, local governments in Tianjin, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Yunnan and Shenyang have carried out vigorous policies to support the new growing industry.

(Beijing-2008 12/22/2000)