China's New Regs: Good for Canadian Cleantech

Lake Dian in Kunming City, China. Credit: Tim Fagan

An article in today’s New York Times consults XPV Capital’s David Henderson (a regular CWT contributor, click here for “Opportunity Knocks”) and Alan McMillan of Omazo Ventures, a technology incubator firm also based in Toronto, and chairman of BX Jishu, a Chinese clean-technology distributor. From the article:

The staggering economic growth in China has come at a heavy cost, paid in severe contamination of the country’s air, soil and water. But now the Chinese government is aggressively pursuing more stringent environmental regulation, with a particular focus on water distribution and wastewater treatment.

“Recent stimulus spending has opened up the Chinese market to green initiatives. And Canadian companies are responding to the call for advanced water treatment and reuse technology,” reads the article.

Canada has a strong track record for innovation and investment in clean water technology and already has a foot in the Chinese market. “Canadian companies like [Trojan Technologies] that are world leaders in ultraviolet technology have benefited a lot of the emerging companies looking to enter China,” said Henderson.

Omazo, through BX Jishu, distributes in China equipment manufactured by UV Pure Technologies, also of Toronto, that purifies water using ultraviolet light. The company is bringing clean water to China’s hotel industry. “We see the hotel industry as being one of the first to demand clean water. Hotels have extreme water needs for their pools, restaurants, showers,” says McMillan. “And the people who stay in them have high expectations.”

Yesterday’s Vancouver Sun, however, says that industry insiders believe that Canada is falling behind in the global clean tech market. At a recent event, Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt declared Canada a global leader, but a follow-up panel “politely scolded the federal government for failing to make cleantech a strategic priority.”

Read McMillan’s article from CWT’s September/October 2009 issue here. In similar news, Guelph, Ontario-based ENPAR Technologies Inc. recently entered an Asian joint venture, and Quebec’s BioSpec Global Solutions, a company that develops rapid, onsite monitoring of microbial contamination in drinking water, recently announced they’re applying for Eurasian patents in anticipation of entry China.