(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-01-09 19:11

The US Clean-Energy Technologies Trade Mission led by US Commerce Assistant Secretary David Bohigian is in China for a visit on January 8-13. David Bohigian had his first try at chatting with Chinese netizens today in Beijing, when he was interviewed by Zhang Xiaogang, senior consultant of China Daily.

 

China Daily: Today we have the honor to have the US Assistant Secretary of Commerce, Mr. David Bohigian here to share with us his views on the prospective of the two countries' cooperation in cleantech and energy. Let me first ask one question, also on behalf of some people who sent in their questions. Mr Bohigian, is this the first time you have visited China or have you already visited this country many times?

Bohigian: First of all thank you for the opportunity to talk today and I really appreciate the ability to talk directly to the netizens out there. This is not my first trip to China. It's been a real opportunity for me over the last five years to travel to China several times and see the enormous growth. My job is based on international economic policy and certainly China and the United States have very much to gain by working together on knocking down trade barriers and working cooperatively in fields such as alternative energy.

China Daily: So what is the main purpose of this visit? I get the impression you are almost the team leader of a beauty parade! A whole bunch of American companies, each one with a portfolio of solutions they are ready to offer the Chinese market.

Bohigian: Well the purpose of my visit this week to Beijing, Guangzhou and Hong Kong is to lead a mission of clean energy companies from the United States. These are 17 companies that represent everything from solar power to clean coal, to energy efficiency and beyond. It gives us the opportunity to talk to Chinese companies, which we'll have hundreds of meetings with, throughout the week, to work on opportunities together to provide more energy to the Chinese people, to provide energy efficiency and clean air and clean water and make sure that the environment that is being created by our use of greenhouse gases is as good as it can be.

China Daily: Here's another question. Because of the size of our growth, we've been called by critiques as the two chief emitters in the world. It's just a matter of the weight of our economies. If the US and China can really work together in promoting cleantech, what kind of results are you looking forward to, both between the two governments and on the corporate level?

Bohigian: You're exactly right that our two countries are the major emitters of the world, because of the strengths of our economy. There are observers who aren't sure if China is ahead of the United States or behind the United States, but that's not what we are here to debate. What we're here to talk about is how we can provide more energy in a more efficient and cleaner manner so that we're able to reduce the intensity of our greenhouse gas emissions in the decades to come. So what I'm hoping for are two different things. One is to continue the tremendous discussions we’ve had as part of the Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate, which includes United States, China, India and other countries in a series of multilateral meetings and task forces to talk about deploying these technologies. Another part of that discussion process, and China is participating in it, is the major economies meeting that was hosted in Washington in late 2007 and will be hosted again in Hawaii in just the next few weeks. So those policy discussions are happening while we're in Beijing and Hong Kong and in Guangzhou with both central government officials as well as provincial and local officials to talk about things like market based pricing for energy, talk about how to protect intellectual property rights so the most important innovations can come to market. So we've got many policy goals that we'll be discussing, as we did this morning, with the Ministry of Finance and Commerce as well as the National Development and Reform Commission, tomorrow morning. So we’re happy to have those discussions because together – Often in the United States we say that the government creates the climate for business or government helps the environment for prosperity, and that's never more true than when we're discussing that on environment and climate issues. The second goal . . .

China Daily: Well regarding technologies and solutions from the US, there have been some stereotypes among business people in developing countries that solutions from rich countries are not really good for the conditions of developing countries, they are expensive, they charge a lot of royalties and they have a lot of strings attached regarding intellectual property rights, and so on. They are expensive to purchase, implement, and especially in the cleantech area, because it's a new industry, some people say, well, let's wait and see and you never know. This is a new solution; let's wait another ten or twenty years to see if it really works. I know you're not in any particular business, but can you share with us what solutions that will be particularly good, not just for developed countries and not just for rich countries, but also for every country in the world?

Bohigian: Well, it certainly is true that US companies and global companies have been able to adapt to marketplace conditions throughout the developed and the developing world and we think that continues in the energy business. We think that the only thing more expensive than not deploying these technologies today is trying to clean up the environmental degradation, whether it's air or water or carbon, in the years ahead. China has an enormous political, as well as market opportunity to leapfrog the mistakes some of the developed countries have made in not deploying these technologies earlier. You also know from your business experience that while some technologies may have higher upfront costs to install, they have lower operating costs over the life of the project. So to put in a coal-fired electricity generating plant might be less expensive in the beginning, but the feed stock of coal needs to continue to be added to that plant for the life of the 40 or 50 years of that plant. As opposed to being able to put in a wind farm or solar panels where the feedstock remains free for the life of the project.

China Daily: We also noticed that China has a very strong competitive capacity and capability in implementing solutions and America has very good technologies and it's good at turning out new solutions. If the two countries can join together to put their advantages together in implementing good solutions, do you see there would be a good chance to set an example for other developing countries, and especially major economies around the Pacific Rim, like Indonesia or India and some other major countries so that your companies and Chinese engineers, perhaps, and workers, can implement a lot of solutions everywhere.

Bohigian: We're in no choice. Our countries and our companies must lead. Simply put, whether it's policy, or whether it's implementation and design, if China and the United States are not working together, the problems will only get worse when it comes to air pollution, water pollution, and climate change. So we think that our companies have the ability to work together closely with your companies. Our last trade mission, held in April 2007, was the first ever clean energy trade mission that the United States government had ever led. That trade mission has resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars worth of sales, and we believe each one of those is a design and implementation solution for both of our countries.

China Daily: You already answered a couple of questions that netizens raised about your first clean energy technologies trade mission both to China and India, and they asked about the results from your visit last April. Now, the question is, will there be more trade missions like this or will it become more regular or institutionalized between the two countries - or between several countries - or is it going to something tied to a bigger framework or program.

Bohigian: Every American knows the Chinese phrase that a journey begins with a single step. And today we’ve made two important steps at once. First, having our companies be here on the second clean energy trade mission has helped our countries to be able to institutionalize the ability for our companies to get together. And the second step we've made today is opening up a dialogue on clean energy and energy efficiency. And that dialogue, along with our partners at CCCME, and our partners at NDRC and MOFCOM, we certainly hope continue. The President has put an enormous priority to working with the world through the major economies process, as well as the Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate and we certainly expect that that will continue.

Bohigian chats with Chinese citizens - audio (II)