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WRA pledge: Taiwan to be Asian water industry hub

Potential business opportunities in water-related industries in Taiwan will increase dramatically in the near future, and the government has asked foreign investors with advanced technology to explore the domestic market in September, when an international trade fair for the industry will be held in Taiwan, the Water Resources Agency (WRA) said yesterday.

WRA officials announced yesterday that TaiwanWater 2004 will be held in early September in Taipei to appeal to foreign investors and explore potential overseas markets for domestic firms in water-related industries.

According to the WRA's most recent assessments, potential BOT (build-operate-transfer) business opportunities in water recycling and reusage will total about NT$8 billion over the next four years. Investment opportunities in hydro-electric micro-power generation in the coming decade in Taiwan will equal NT$15 billion, while the annual output of newly developed deep seawater technology in Taiwan might reach NT$2.6 billion. Finally, the hot springs industry could reach NT$ 11 billion in the next few years.

WRA director-general Chen Shen-hsien (陳伸賢) told the Taipei Times the trade fair would be an ideal platform for people to not only exchange investment information, but also to publicize Taiwan's achievements in water resources management.

"In the past, Taiwan exchanged views or information about water resource technologies with others through academic conferences, but the influence of these events was limited," Chen said. "We changed our strategy in order to make Taiwan a hub for water-related industries in Asia."

To pave the way for a successful expo, Chen attended the region's largest water and wastewater exhibition, the AsiaWater 2004 Expo, held in March in Kuala Lumpur to inform foreign investors about TaiwanWater 2004.

"The market in Asia for waste- water treatment will grow rapidly, and TaiwanWater 2004 will make Taiwan the leader in promoting the collaboration of water industries, not only in Asia, but also the world," Chen said.

In May, Chen also visited Russia and signed a memorandum of understanding with the Russian Academy of Sciences to promote the interaction of experts in the water resources, oceanology, environmental studies and other fields, and also to exchange the latest technologies and data from these fields.

Chen said that Taiwan's mature water conservation technologies could meet growing demand from other developing Asian countries. Meanwhile, Taiwan needs well-developed technology, especially for sewage treatment systems.

According to Wang Yi-fung (王藝峰), a section chief of the WRA, domestic water-related industries could be promoted by introducing new technologies from advanced countries. Taking deep seawater technology developed and adopted in Japan and the US as an example, Wang said the littoral regions of eastern Taiwan actually offer excellent conditions for the development of such technology. In eastern Taiwan, only 2km from the eastern coast, the depth of the sea floor reaches 600m quickly, he noted.

"So it remains possible for us to adopt advanced technologies to extract clean, cold and nutritious deep sea water to create diverse markets ranging from aquaculture, bottled water, cosmetics to health foods," Wang said.
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