The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) is making a series of policies to encourage the development of seawater desalination industry which are likely to be carried out in the next half of the year, according to the Shanghai Securities News on Wednesday, citing industry experts.
Guo Youzhi, Secretary-genenal of China Desalination Association (CDA) said NDRC is suggesting establishing several seawater desalination pilot projects and national industrial bases, setting up a desalination industrial alliance, engineering centers and related labs, and encouraging the manufacturing capability of sea water desalination materials. Favorable fiscal and taxation policies will also be launched in the near future.
The policies will benefit domestic equipment designers and manufacturers, as well as other companies with huge industrial water consumption, the report said. Currently, only 60 percent of all seawater desalination equipment is domestically manufactured.
Analysts of Shenyin & Wanguo Securities believe investments on the equipment will amount to 14 billion yuan ($2.15 billion) over the next ten years, the report said.
CDA’s statistics also show that China’s seawater desalination capacity was at 640,000 tons a day in 2010, accounting for 1 percent of the total global capacity. Guo said this number is expected to reach 1.5 million to 2 million tons a day during the 12th Five-year Plan period.
