Gyeonggi Province has invited Chinese and Vietnamese municipalities with environmental markets of notable potential to exchange environmental policies and seek ways in which Gyeonggi’s environmental companies can advance into those markets.

The 2018 Global Environmental Industry Cooperation Forum was hosted by Gyeonggi Province at the Ramada Plaza Suwon Hotel on September 13. Over 30 government and company officials from Shanxi Province and Yancheng City of China and Bac Ninh Province of Vietnam attended the event.

The forum was held with two goals: to introduce Gyeonggi Province’s advanced environmental policies to the invited municipalities and to help the province’s environmental enterprises enter overseas markets.

According to Gyeonggi Province, China plans to invest approximately KRW 3.1 quadrillion into environmental enhancement by 2020, offering great opportunities to relevant Gyeonggi Province enterprises in terms of entry into Chinese markets. Meanwhile, Vietnam, which has seen a national growth rate of over 6 percent per annum, but has suffered from various environmental issues, has sought to import advanced technologies from overseas in order to respond to these increasing environmental challenges on a governmental level. Preference for Korean products and technologies in the Vietnamese market is expected to work to the advantage of Korean companies.

The Gyeonggi Province decided on the invitation of these municipalities following consultation with an expert advisory group consisting of environmental industry specialists and entrepreneurs as well as environmental companies. Notably, Shanxi Province of China was selected in consideration of its partnership with Gyeonggi Province in the environmental industry, while Bac Ninh Province of Vietnam was chosen as it had expressed its will to establish a partnership with the province in the environmental field.

The forum started with a session on environmental policy issues in Korea, China and Vietnam in order to facilitate an exchange of the environmental industry policies of Gyeonggi Province and the invited East Asian municipalities as well as discussions regarding cooperation and development plans. This session was followed by: a Korea-China session on environmental company cooperation and development in response to the strengthened environmental regulations of China, a Korea-Vietnam session to share Korean cases and pursue cooperation methods to resolve Vietnam’s water pollution issues; and a Green Environment Center session to introduce successful technology development cases of Gyeonggi Province companies as well as ways in which to enhance environment centers.

Along with the main sessions, a trade fair was also held with the participation of 20 environmental companies in Gyeonggi Province including Wooyang Engineering and ACEN, five Chinese environmental enterprises including the Shaanxi Environmental Protection Industry Group and Shaanxi Daqin Environmental Technology, and five Vietnamese environmental companies including Tuan Tain and EMS VIVA.

The forum was the second international forum that Gyeonggi Province held on environmental issues. Last year, it hosted the Environmental Cooperation Forum together with three northeastern provinces of China (Liaoning Province, Heilongjiang Province and Jilin Province) to formulate solutions to the fine dust issue.