Economy

China 2nd largest overseas market for Singapore water firms

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-05-27 13:49

SINGAPORE - The China market accounted for 11.9 percent of the total value of overseas projects of Singapore's water industry in 2006-2010, making it the second largest overseas market for the city state, an official said Thursday.

Singapore-based water enterprises have a total of 161 projects in the overseas market worth S$8.4 billion ($6.7 billion) during the five-year period, Yeoh Keat Chuan, assistant managing director of the Economic Development Board, said at a press briefing.

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Forty-five of the projects were in China, worth a total of S$1 billion. The Middle East, in comparison, was the largest overseas market with 17 projects worth S$6.6 billion. The projects in the Middle East tend to be larger than those in other overseas market.

Goh Chee Kiong, director of Cleantech Division at the Economic Development Board, said many Chinese water industry players have also been using Singapore as a platform to go international, and universities in the two countries have also collaborated on projects such as a joint initiative involving Peking University, the National University of Singapore and the Oxford University of Britain.

Yeoh said Singapore's water industry has almost doubled in the five years since 2006 when the government decided to make the water industry one of its new growth areas. The aim was to invest S$330 million from the National Research Foundation in the five years to grow Singapore as a global water industry hub, and to have a water industry that contributes S$1.7 billion of value-added to the economy.

Yeoh said the industry has added S$590 million of annual value-add to the Singapore economy, in addition to the S$660 million in 2005.

Officials at the water briefing said they are confident that the target for 2015 will be met.

Goh also said one of the strengths of Singapore lies in its platform to match the capital and the technology.

"They tend to be capital-intensive. And very often, financing is the bottle-neck," he said.

Singapore has been facing an issue of water scarcity and shortage, which prompted the city state to roll out initiatives to grow its water industry. Now it is "a strength," Yeoh said.