Over the past three years, the Danish Minister for the Environment, Kirsten Brosbøl, and the Danish Ministry of the Environment have played a leading role in the China Europe Water Platform cooperation (CEWP), which develops ideas and green eco-technology solutions. The cooperation has been so successful that China and the other European countries want Denmark to continue as the driving force behind the cooperation.
“Being asked to continue to head the China Europe Water Platform cooperation is a huge acknowledgement of Danish efforts. In recent years, we have worked to strengthen cooperation with China, and we can feel that China has indeed tuned in on Denmark and Europe in its endeavours to find the water solutions of the future,” said Kirsten Brosbøl, Minister for the Environment.
The Chinese Minister of Water Resources, Chen Lei visited Denmark on 10-13 May to meet with Kirsten Brosbøl and to attend the annual CEWP meeting.
Denmark has a head start
Denmark is one of the leading countries in Europe in terms of exports of water technology. This is confirmed by the most recent exports figures from DAMVAD showing that in 2014 Danish exports to China amounted to DKK 831 million. Since 2006, annual exports of water technologies to China have increased by 13.7% on average.
“We already have substantial exports to China, but given the enormous investment we know China is prepared to make, there is no doubt that this sector still holds great potential. Together with the rest of Europe, Denmark is ready to present the solutions China needs to provide clean drinking water, to reduce pollution of watercourses and rivers and to protect its groundwater,” said Kirsten Brosbøl.
In addition to the ambition to increase exports of water technology solutions from the EU to China, it is also hoped to secure more resources for a number of collaboration projects.
Facts:
The following countries took part in the CEWP annual meeting in Copenhagen on 12 May: Sweden, Finland, France, Switzerland, the UK, Greece, Austria, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Estonia and China.
The Chinese Minister of Water Resources, Chen Lei, met bilaterally with a number of enterprises and representatives from these other countries in connection with the annual meeting.
The Chinese minister also met with a number of (Danish) enterprises under the Confederation of Danish Industries, including Grundfos, AVK Valve Technology, Aquaporin, Rambøll and Silhorko Eurowater
