Northeast China's Jilin province is gearing up to lure investment from home and abroad to bolster its sewage treatment system in a bid to answer the growing call for environment protection.

"An economic system has grown out of the current sewage treatment capabilities in Jilin, so we sincerely welcome investment and high-tech cooperation worldwide to help deal with the problem," said Xu Yuqing, an official from the Commerce Department of Jilin province.

As of 2010, Jilin has set up about 20 sewage treatment plants, with each plant exceeding 200,000 tons of capacity per day. A total of 75 percent of the plants are for urban sewage treatment, with the remaining 25 percent for industrial wastewater treatment.

In 2012, the gross domestic products of the province were valued at 1.19 trillion yuan ($194.4 billion). The automobile, petrochemical and agricultural manufacturing sectors are the pillars of the province.

"Water is indispensable to daily life and industrial production. But wastewater produced during food and industrial manufacturing is much less degradable than sewage in daily life," said Xu.

The industrial sewage treatment capacity in the province stood at 365,000 tons per day, taking up only 19.9 percent of the total in the province, according to Huang Jiguo, a professor in the College of Environment and Resources of Jilin University.

"Technologies we are now adopting in this area mainly include A2/O, SBR (Sequencing Batch Reactor Activated Sludge Process) and MBR (Meane Biological Reactor). That is far from enough," said Huang.

"We must also find an efficient way to recycle or capture carbon dioxide that is generated during sewage treatment," he added.

China is now stepping up its efforts to encourage energy conservation, high-tech innovations and investment in environmental protection to develop a sustainable economy.

The country's urban sewage treatment capacity is set to increase to 200 million cubic meters per day by 2015, according to an earlier report in China Daily.

"Environmental protection has become more pressing nowadays. We are dedicated to boosting energy efficiency and developing a green economy," said Wang Jiarui, vice-chairman of the 12th CPPCC and minister of the International Liaison Department of the Central Committee, at the 9th China-Northeast Asia Expo that ended Sept 11.