Since Gyeonggi Province selected 40 environmental companies in the province for active support of their exports, many people have been showing interest in the results of the efforts. Since demand for environmental industry are increasing in the emerging economies in Southeast Asia and China, a successful advancement into overseas markets is expected to serve as a new breakthrough for the environmental industry in the province.

According to an official of Gyeonggi Province, the environmental industry in the province has been dynamized ever since Governor Kim Mun-soo pledged to actively support the overseas advancement of environmental companies in the province, after his visit to China in April.

Gyeonggi Province hosted a workshop for environmental experts in May of this year to discuss the conditions of the international market for environmental businesses, promising areas for the market entry, and measures to provide support, and selected 12 companies from among the environmental companies in the province as excellent environmental companies. The selection was based on performance in terms of orders received from abroad, and the level of retaining technologies.

In order to help S company, one of the selected businesses, which is working on a stock farm sewage treatment business in Zaozhang, Shandong Province, to expand its business, Gyeonggi Province arranged for a meeting between representatives of the company and the Shandong delegation. The delegation visited Gyeonggi Province to participate in the North East Asia Regional Government Association hosted by Gyeonggi Province, and had a field trip to the Sihwa eco-wetland. Provincial officials said that the meeting was fruitful, and the results will be manifested in the expansion of the stock sewage treatment facilities and the eco-wetland development project in Shandong in the near future.

D company, which is working on the industrial wastewater treatment project in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, plans to visit Guangdong Province as a member of the Gyeonggi CEO Guangdong Province Training Team, and look for ways to expand its business by meeting members of local businesses and related authorities.

Recently, Gyeonggi Province selected 28 additional companies as eligible for the second round of support measures, completing the list of 40 representative environmental companies of the province. This aim of this measure is to develop better environmental products and give benefits to more companies in the province by discovering more companies that can be supported.

Gyeonggi Province plans to provide information on the environmental markets and related institutional measures of emerging economies, including China, by hosting a workshop on the environmental laws and the environmental market of China. The province will also provide consulting services for the businesses by establishing an environmental advisory group with experts from universities, research centers of environmental companies, environmental organizations, and trade organizations. In addition, the province will publish a catalogue of representative environmental companies in the province containing information on 40 selected businesses, and distribute it to the overseas market, while providing mentoring support by giving face-to-face consulting on difficulties and export progress to the selected companies.

Gyeonggi Province sent letters of proposal of environmental cooperation to three areas that have a sister relationship with the province, including Shandong, Liaoning, and Guangdong Provinces, and the Chingdao Korean Chamber of Commerce, and invited public officials in charge of international exchange from 10 cities and guns that introduced the mutual public officer exchange system in the province, encouraging them to serve as the bridge for exchange with China. The province is making these efforts to fully utilize every human network possible to prevail in the face of the fierce competition.

Regarding to the support policies of the province, Governor Kim Mun-soo said, “As China is expected to invest around USD 175 billion to improve the environmental sector by 2010, thanks to economic growth and the Beijing Olympic Games, it is a land of opportunity for environmental companies in the province. Environmental companies from around the globe are in the midst of cut-throat competition to advance into emerging markets such as Vietnam, Indonesia, India, and Malaysia. I will spare no effort in working to enable the province to take the dominant position in those markets.”

The environmental technologies of the province fall behind of those of advanced nations including the US, Germany, and Japan. However, the province is equipped with sufficient capability to meet the standards required by emerging industrial countries, and specific technologies in the areas of wastewater treatment and waste air treatment (denitrification, desulfurization, and precipitation) are being highly acclaimed as similarly excellent technologies to those of advanced nations. Indeed, as the models of environmental condition changes in emerging economies such as China, Vietnam, and Indonesia are similar to that of Korea, Korea is in a favorable position to provide customized technologies for these countries.

Gyeonggi Province has high expectations for the Water Expo, which will he held in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China between October 31 and November 3, 2007. The area is typical in that it has trouble with polluted water, and the local government has announced a full-scale policy to improve water quality. Gyeonggi Province plans to dispatch five companies related to the water quality in the province to the fair, and establish the Korean booth jointly with the Korean Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, to actively capture the market and promote the environmental industry of the province.