Tianjin clean tech platform promotes cooperation

Potential buyers in the clean technology sector from China can choose to attend investment fairs among traditional avenues - or now they can just open their computers and the relevant information will be delivered directly to them.

A startup website called TEDA International Clean Tech Transfer Platform (www.icttp.org), which was launched on Dec 15 by the Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area (TEDA), aims to serve as a more convenient and economical way of improving the increasing international cooperation in the clean tech sector.

The government-supported platform, which is mainly an information provider, offers news and information releases, policy interpretation, intellectual property rights protection, video conferencing and other cross-border communication services as well.

"In the 27 years I have been doing technology transferring, we never had this kind of platform for international cooperation," said John Deal, Environmental Control Officer of IX Power Clean Water, which has brought cutting-edge high concentrated water treatment technology to a partner in China.

"Being able to have a platform for innovation is itself an innovation," Deal said.

A week after the launch, six companies from Indonesia and India published on it their clean tech demands in such areas as lighting, air and urban refuse - and 22 suppliers from the UK, China, France, US and other countries also appeared on its home page.

Players in the sector say the clean tech industry in China has really taken off, and the balance between economic growth and environment protection is increasingly being struck by the clean technologies which the authorities and consumers are demanding.

China's new Five-Year Plan (2016-20) has committed to low-carbon economic targets, which encourages the development of clean tech.

According to a report from the World Bank released in 2014, China's total investments in clean technology could reach $415 billion in 2024.

"More bridges like this platform should be built since China now has a lot clean tech to offer to the world," said Du Xiaobing from Dalian National Demonstration District of Ecological Industry Co Ltd.

Officials with the Tianjin TEDA Low-Carbon Economy Promotion Center (or TEDA Eco Center) said they would collect and assess the needs of 219 national economic development areas, a process which could mean hundreds of new jobs.

According to its website, the center, a nonprofit body which is supported by TEDA, is dedicated to becoming the first international cooperation and implementing organization in China promoting technical innovation and spreading the low-carbon economy.

"Technology which can clean the industrial chain is in high demand in TEDA. In the meantime, we hope more companies from other countries see development happening here and eventually settle down in TEDA," said Song Yuyan, the center's director.