Water technology following plant factories
(Published March 08, 2013)

Pangaea 21, Ltd. attracts Saudi Arabia with water control system for Middle East.
 

◇ Vice President Lee Jae-yeop and employees of Pangaea 21, Ltd. As a company of water control technology, it opened the possibilities for the exports of its technologies toward Saudi Arabia with the support of Gyeonggi Province. ⓒ G-News Plus / Heo Seon-ryang
 
Saudi Arabia, a nation with a lack of water, is displaying interest in ‘water control technology’ of Gyeonggi Province recently. After the province exported the plant factories to Qatar last year, it is attracting Middle East again with its technologies.
 
On February 27, Gyeonggi Province Governor Kim Moon-soo had a luncheon with representatives of state-run companies in Saudi Arabia and executives of small and medium sized companies having water control technology within the province at the governor’s official residence, discussing ‘water management system’ operated in Gyeonggi Province.
 
Through the visit, a group of visitors from Saudi Arabia toured water control system and technologies which are being operated in the cities and the counties of Gyeonggi Province and confirmed the feasibility of applying the domestic system to their country.
 
On the day, Governor Kim also expressed his anticipation over the discussion with visitors from Saudi Arabia on Facebook.
 
He posted on Facebook, “We positively communicate over the water leakage prevention system of Korea. They said Korean products offer superior quality and cheap price. Then, I said ‘Excellent quality, cheap price, plus good friends, that’s Korea.’ They looked happy when I said, ‘Korea is a good friend who never bothers, invades, or forces other counties to be its colony.”
 
Gyeonggi Province plans to aggressively support the relevant small and medium sized companies so that it once again pushes into the market of Middle East following the exports of plant factories to Qatar.
 
The most attractive company to Saudi Arabia is Pangaea 21, Ltd., a specialized company for water management technology. This company built the water management system at Clean Water Environment Center in Uijeongbu City. Touring the facilities, a group of Saudis reportedly praised fully for the technologies. Moreover, a guarantee of Pangaea 21’s technologies by Gyeonggi Province raises the possibilities of the exports to Saudi Arabia.
 

◇ Gyeonggi Province Governor Kim Moon-soo discussed the exports of the water control system of Pangaea 21 or others with visitors from Saudi Arabia in a luncheon at his official residence on February 27. ⓒ G-News Plus
 
Pangaea 21, Ltd. is ‘a company specializing in water control technology’ which was established in 1997 and involves about 50 employees. The office moved into Pangyo Techno Valley in 2011, and it has headquarters and factories in Anyang City. This company was nominated as ‘Promising small-and-medium-sized company of Gyeonggi Province’s last December as it established the integrated information system for Arisu water of Seoul City and recently created Smart Control System at the provincial project for plant factories.
 
In addition, it recently increased water flow rate of Uijeongbu City up to 97% by establishing the water control system to Clean Water Environment Center of the city from 2003. This figure is the third highest among the nation following Seoul and Gwacheon City.
 
Lee Jae-yeop, the vice-president of Pangaea 21, Ltd. stressed the importance of the water control system, saying “Now, we need to manage water in a scientific and effective way by preventing water leaks, expecting the demand of water, and then supplying the required amount, while the conventional systems simply produce and supply water.”

Pangaea 21, Ltd. has prepared to push into the market of Middle East countries as well as the domestic market. Still, the president Lee Jae-geuk resides in the Middle East region for the application of the company’s technologies into the local market. That is because many Middle East countries including Qatar, Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia are classified as ‘water poverty countries’ and therefore, the potential markets are huge.
 
“In case of Saudi Arabia, the country largely desalinates saltwater and then supplies the product as water for living, commercial, or industrial use. Therefore, water production costs a lot but water leakage rate reaches 50%. Over a half amount of the expensive water is wasted in the process of supply,” said Vice-president Lee.
 
“An increase in underground water level due to water leakage is another serious problem. When we dig the ground for public works, leaked water remains in there, thereby requiring additional time and cost to pump out. Moreover, dirty water leaked from the sewer pipe may permeate into the water supplies again.” He added.
 
Water leaks when water pipes get old. As water flows in the water pipes at the pressure of fire hose and they are pressured under the ground, they crack as time goes by. Water considerably leaks at the junction of the water pipes, too.

While Korea largely uses water pipes made from metallic materials, Saudi Arabia uses pipes made from the brittle PVC materials. According to the vice-president, in case of Korea, PVC water pipes used in the 1960s have been replaced with the metal pipes. 
 

◇ Pangaea 21’s Vice-president Lee Jae-yeop said, “To promote an overseas expansion of the small companies, it is a good idea that such companies having element technologies cooperate with one another.” ⓒ G-News Plus Heo Seon-ryang

To advance toward the Middle East market, Pangaea 21, Ltd. has established SWI(Smart Water International) last year with the partnership with DuraCam and Hanil Network Engineering.
 
SWI builds water control systems in 5 steps including Establishment of the basic plan, Geographical information system, Blocking(a process of dividing sections per water pipes), Leakage detection, and Final management . As each small company itself cannot deal with the whole process, such companies having different specialties decided to put their efforts together.

Hanil Network Engineering is a leakage detection company, and DuraCam repairs water pipes in the coating method without digging the ground. Pangaea 21 is responsible for the overall solution for the monitoring system and others.

Vice-president Lee Jae-yeop said, “As our company, DuraCam and Hanil Network Engineering are engaging in the same industry, we have known one another well before. Since each company has individual element technologies and we know well about strengths and weak points of each company, we finally founded SWI Corporation.”
 
He also said, “We had a difficulty in credit guarantee as our technologies have yet been verified when we first prepared the overseas business. For this reason, most small and medium sized companies rest on major companies to expand into the overseas market. However, Pangaea 21, Ltd. was supported by Gyeonggi Province as it nominated our company as ‘Promising small-and-medium-sized company of Gyeonggi Province’ last year, assuring our technologies, so it helps a lot in our advancing overseas.”

“For those who want to push into the overseas market, they should not rush into the business but prepare for it steadily. If small companies having different element technologies cooperate with one another, it will help a lot.” He advised.

After the visit from NWC(a state-run water management company in Saudi Arabia), SWI Corporation is accelerating the expansion into the overseas market and trying to contact Turkey, Abu Dhabi, and Egypt as well as managing water leakage in Jeddah region of Saudi Arabia.

Displaying interest in water management system, Turkey plans to build systems for network analysis, real-time supervisory control, and leakage control by 2015. Abu Dhabi is trying to introduce the coating technology for water pipes by DuraCam, a participating company of SWI for the replacement of the old pipes and the renewal of the pipe channels. Egypt is planning to visit Korea this month for leakage control of water.

Vice-president Lee said, “Water control technology is not a short-term business which is completed within 1 or 2 years. For Saudi Arabia, the project will be carried out in the long term, starting from the area showing huge leaks. I want to pay my gratitude to Governor Kim for showing much interest in our water management system as well as the plant factory. Please further pay attention to and support small and medium sized companies now and for ever.”
 

◇ Inside of Anyang Factory of Pangaea 21, Ltd. ⓒ G-News Plus
 
ⓒ G-News Plus News | Lee Joon-kyoon eyekle0723@kg21.net
 
http://gnews.gg.go.kr/news/news_detail.asp?number=201303081141377055C052&s_code=C052