Top Biz News
Copenhagen resolution spurs launch of first green industry fund
By Song Ping (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-01-19 07:54
 |
Large Medium Small |
In the wake of the climate conference in Copenhagen late last year, China's first environmental industry fund was launched on Dec 28 in Beijing. This is the first fund of its kind in China and is to come under the auspices of the China General Technology Investment Fund Management Corp.
As part of a bid to promote investment in the country's environment-related sectors, the fund is expected to raise 2 billion yuan ($292.95 million) in its first phase. A parallel $300 million offshore fund will also be established, serving the water, solid waste disposal, renewable energy, energy conservation and emission reduction sectors. This fund will be introduced before the second quarter of 2011.
The fund manager, the China General Technology Investment Fund Management Corp, is located in Beijing's Lize financial business zone. It is now established as the major stockholder and lead partner for the funding initiative.
Xie Zhenhua, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission and team leader of the Chinese delegation to the Copenhagen conference, sent a congratulatory message to the mangers of the new project, which was read out at the launch ceremony.
Both He Tongxin, chairman of China General Technology Group, and Li Dang, its general manager, emphasized that the fund has been set up to remedy the increasingly contradictory needs of economic development and environmental sustainability. This, they said, was particularly apparent with regard to the shortage of capital and the inefficiency of investment in sustainable development initiatives.
The two underlined their hope that the China General Technology Group would grow alongside the environment industry, making full use of its pioneering advantages, whilst exploring new patterns of investment and finance for environmental protection and infrastructure projects. They also pledged to maximize the cooperative usage of the fund both at home and abroad, while maintaining a distinct market orientation.
This new fund has been welcomed by a number of environmental experts, particularly for its timeliness and its commitment to the resolutions of the Copenhagen conference. The Chinese government has now undertaken to reduce carbon dioxide emission per unit of gross domestic product by 40 percent to 45 percent by 2020 compared with the levels generated in 2005.
Many commentators see great opportunities for China's environmental industry and believe that fund-raising and investment projects within the sector may now be undertaken in a more mutually supportive atmosphere. As a result of the new initiative, the risks of fund-raising, investment, management, and refunding are said to have been minimized.
