China's wellspring of demand

Suez Environnement foresees more wastewater treatment plants, including sludge treatment, in China. Provided to China Daily

The quest for water and waste solutions means big business for french Utility company

"Making the planet sustainable is the best job on earth," says the French utility company Suez Environnement on its website's homepage.

It is also one of the best businesses for the multinational water and waste solution provider - especially when it comes to China.

Despite China's slowing economy, Paris-based Suez Environnement plans to invest more in the country, where environmental protection and sustainable development are becoming the top priorities for the central and local governments.

"We've seen an increasing awareness in sustainable development in China. The slowdown shouldn't impact companies in the field of the environment, where China is still investing a huge amount of money," says Jean-Louis Chaussade, CEO of the group, which posted global revenue of 14.8 billion euros ($19.8 billion) in 2011.

He says it will continue heavy investment in the water and waste sector worldwide by about 1.2 to 1.3 billion euros this year.

"The eurozone crisis is very complex. The situation in the US is not much better. But if you take the other way around, the less we invest in Europe, the more we can invest in China," Chaussade told China Daily in November, after he signed a memorandum of understanding to open up a new research and development center in Chongqing municipality in Southwest China.

The company has been expanding rapidly in China, setting up two to three new joint ventures every year. It now has 27.

"We are not only raising our investment in China by opening up new joint ventures, but also by expanding our existing companies," Chaussade says.

In Chongqing, the 50-50 partnership between the company's subsidiary, Sino French Water, and Chongqing Water Group increased its registered capital from $50 million in 2002 to $265 million last year.

Suez Environnement reported global revenue of 11.1 billion euros for the first three quarters of 2012, showing 1.3 percent overall growth year-on-year, but 10 percent growth in the Asia-Pacific region, where the Chinese market is the driving force.

In 2011 the company had income of more than 1 billion euros from its activities in China.

Europe still represents two thirds of Suez Environnement's market.

"Five years ago, the international market was around 20 percent of our 12 billion-euro revenue. Now it has grown to 30 percent of our business, and our business has grown to roughly 15 billion euros a year, which means our international activity has almost doubled over the past five years," says Chaussade.

He has also seen strong business growth in the US and Australia but says China is the market with the most potential, especially when dealing with its scarcest resource, water.

"It is all about the conflict between China's large population and its acute water shortage," he says, adding that 80 percent of his company's business in China is water-related.

Though China accounts for about 20 percent of the global population, its freshwater resources are just 7 percent. The per capita water resources quota in China is 2,100 cubic meters, or 28 percent of the global average.