Environmental protection projects for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games will need a huge capital injection, offering bumper business to the service sector.
To meet the requirements of a green Olympics, the municipal government will spend 45 billion yuan (US$5.42 billion) between 2003-2007 on environmental protection projects and related services.
"But it is far from enough and this has spurred us to attract more domestic and foreign funds," said Huang Qian, a director with the Energy Saving and Environmental Protection Office of the Beijing Economic Committee.
The capital city has formulated a series of policies to support the development of the industry.
"Tax cuts or exemptions will not only be offered to environmental protection enterprises but also related facility manufacturers," said Huang.
The government has set up specific funds to provide subsidies and loans with discounted interest.
"Beijing has listed six sectors to be developed as priorities," said Huang.
They include sewage treatment, solid waste recycling, air pollution prevention, noise control, environmental quality supervision as well as related high technology research and development.
In addition, the city plans to build three environmental protection industrial bases before 2008.
The State Environmental Protection Park will focus on sewage treatment and solid waste recycling.
The Zhongguancun Environmental Protection Park, concentrating on related technology development, and the State Scrapped Automobiles Dissembling & Utilization Park are expected to be launched in 2005.
Huang admitted the key problem for the development of the environmental protection industry in Beijing was a shortage of funds.
"Large parts of the funds for industry depend on fiscal investment. And the majority of related enterprises are non-governmental ones that are also puzzled by the fund-raising issue," said Huang.
According to statistics from the Beijing Economic Committee, there were only around 40 environmental protection and related enterprises in the capital city at the end of 2000.
Their output value totaled nearly 5 billion yuan (US$602 million), with 1 billion yuan (US$120 million) set aside for the environmental protection service sector.
This sector concerns environmental protection consultancy, information, technology and the provision of project solutions.
"The environmental protection service sector is expected to be one of the booming industries in Beijing in the future, especially if one considers the city's rich intellectual resources," said Huang.
(China Daily November 20, 2002)
