Pollution crisis draws in French
China's environment is in crisis. Rivers are running dry across the north of the country, in some areas water pollution is so bad that whole communities are being decimated by cancer, acid rain falls over one-third of the country and the air in many cities will become virtually unbreathable if emissions keep rising at current rates.
Such challenges rank among the most serious facing Beijing's government. But for several French corporate bosses accompanying Jacques Chirac, France's president, in China this week, they also represent opportunities.
Veolia Water, one of the world's leading water companies, expects its business to grow by 15 to 20 per cent annually over the next five years as China's water shortages and pollution boost the need for water recycling and waste management, according to Henri Proglio, the company's chairman and chief executive.
Veolia executives said 40 per cent of large Chinese cities are not yet equipped with water-waste management systems, defining the size of the market. A rapid trend toward urbanisation, under which some 300m people are expected to move from rural areas to towns and cities by 2020, is also set to underpin demand for water management.
Mr Proglio said that despite the low, state-controlled price of water in most parts of China, Veolia was making a "normal, commercial" return on its investment of around 13 per cent on one of its first build- operate-transfer (BOT) projects in Chengdu, in Sichuan province.
It is more common at the moment for Veolia to win water-management contracts than BOT projects. The most recent of these were a 30-year, �660m ($820m) renovation and operation of a drinking water facility in Hohhot, in Inner Mongolia, and a 22-year, �190m renovation and expansion of a drinking water facility in Weinan in Shaanxi province.
Mr Proglio said that Chinese partners in such projects had access to Veolia's technology, which the French company was willing to hand over. He added, however, that so far no Chinese competitor was using Veolia's technology to compete against it. Beijing Capital, one of the company's biggest potential competitors in China, is also its joint venture partner in a water-investment company established in mid-2003.
Addressing a different aspect of China's environmental challenge is Environnement SA, a private French company that sells advanced equipment for measuring emissions from chimneys and cars as well as the general level of air pollution in cities.
Fran?ois Gourdon, Environnement SA's president, said that one-third of his company's exports worldwide were to China, and exports made up about 25 per cent of the company's total sales. In the past few years, the company has sold more than 200 sets of measuring equipment in around 20 Chinese cities, with the main customers being local authorities.
The air-quality measurement system bought by the Beijing municipality cost �3m, and Mr Gourdon was confident that the market in China would grow "for a long time". "They have many cities to equip and roughly 10,000 chimney stacks that need to be equipped," he said.
The 10,000 chimneys that Mr Gourdon spoke of were those of waste incinerators, power plants and others that are mandated by the Chinese government to be continuously monitored for the level of their emissions. The equipment to monitor chimney emissions costs about $100,000, Mr Gourdon said.
The main competitor for Environnement in China is Horiba, a Japanese company based in Kyoto that also has production facilities in China.
A third French company that is focusing on environment-related areas is Vinci, the construction company that is well-known for building China's Daya Bay nuclear power station.
Antoine Zacharias, chairman and chief executive of Vinci, said lack of space in Chinese cities and a sharp increase in the number of cars had created an attractive market for car parks.
He said Vinci, which runs 850,000 car spaces in Europe, would not build Chinese car parks but wanted to take equity stakes with Chinese partners and transfer expertise to the Chinese side.
"I think the Chinese are now thinking more and more about the environment, and parking is part of this environment," Mr Zacharias said.
Vinci Park, the subsidiary that runs the group's parking business, has experience relevant to its China ambitions, running 30,000 car spaces in Hong Kong, Mr Zacharias said.
中国环保危机=法国企业机遇
中国的环境正在陷入危机：华北各地的河流渐趋干涸；一些地区的水污染非常严重，以致整个社区都遭到癌症的严重侵袭；全国超过三分之一的地区普降酸雨；如果废气排放以目前的速度持续增长，那么很多城市的空气将不适合呼吸。
这些挑战是中国政府面临的最严重问题之一。但对本周陪同法国总统雅克?希拉克(Jacques Chirac)访华的几位法国公司老板来说，这些挑战也是机遇。
法国威立雅公司(Veolia Water)是全球水务的领军企业之一。公司董事长兼首席执行官亨利?普罗格里奥(Henri Proglio)表示，由于中国水资源短缺和污染问题推动对水循环和废水管理的需求，公司预计，未来5年中其业务每年将增长15%到20%。
威立雅的管理层说，40%的中国大城市尚未配备废水管理系统，这就确定了市场的规模。迅速发展的城市化趋势也将支撑对水管理的需求。预计到2020年，将有3亿人从农村迁移到城镇生活。
普罗格里奥表示，尽管中国大部分地区的水价低廉，且由国家控制，但威立雅在四川省成都建立的首批“建设-经营-转让”(BOT)项目，其中一个已带来“正常的商业”回报，回报率在13%左右。
目前威立雅获得更多的是水管理合同，而不是BOT项目。在获得的几份合同中，最近一份是30年期、价值6.6亿欧元（合8.20亿美元）的合同，在内蒙古呼和浩特翻建并经营一座饮用水厂；还有一份是22年期、价值1.9亿欧元的合同，在陕西渭南翻新并扩建一座饮用水厂。
普罗格里奥表示，在这些项目中，中国合作伙伴获得了威立雅的技术，而这是这家法国公司自愿转让的。但他补充说，到目前为止，并无一家中国竞争者使用威立雅的技术来与其竞争。北京首创(Beijing Capital)是威立雅在中国最大的潜在竞争对手。也于2003年年中与威立雅合资成立了一家水务投资公司。
福润公司(Environnement SA)正在应对中国环境挑战的另一方面。它是法国的一家私人企业，出售一种先进设备，可测量烟囱和汽车的排废，以及城市空气污染的总体水平。
福润公司总裁弗朗索瓦?古尔东(Fran?ois Gourdon)表示，向中国的出口占公司全球出口的三分之一，而出口约占公司总销售的25%。过去几年中，该公司已向中国约20座城市出售逾00套测量设备，其中的主要客户是地方政府。
北京市政当局出资300万欧元购买空气质量测定系统，因此古尔东很有信心，认为中国市场将“长期”增长。“他们有许多城市要配备（这种系统），大约有1万个烟囱需要配备（这种系统）”他说。
古尔东所说的1万个烟囱，是指垃圾焚烧炉、发电厂等所在地的烟囱，政府要求持续监控这些地方的排废水平。古尔东，监控烟囱排放的设备售价在10万美元左右。
福润在中国的主要环保业务竞争者是Horiba，这是一家总部在京都的日本公司，它在中国也有生产设施。
第三家致力于环保业务的法国公司是Vinci，这家建筑公司因建造中国大亚湾核电站而出名。
Vinci的董事长兼首席执行官安托万?扎卡里亚斯(Antoine Zacharias)说，中国的城市缺乏空间，加之汽车数量激增，这为汽车停车场行业提供了一个富有吸引力的市场。
他表示，Vinci不会在中国建造停车场，但希望能与中国企业合作，持有合作项目的股权，并向中方转让专业技术。Vinci在欧洲经营的停车位达到85万个。
“我认为，如今中国人越来越考虑环境，而停车是环境的一部分，”扎卡里亚斯说道。
Vinci Park是Vinci旗下的停车业务子公司。扎卡里亚斯说，对集团在中国的雄心计划，该子公司有相关经验，目前在香港经营着3万个停车位。
