ZWEEC Analytics and the Yangtze River Authority have signed an MoU to develop an ecological environmental monitoring platform in China.
Connecting Singapore and China
A new Singapore-China partnership will help to develop a new water ecological environmental monitoring platform for the Yangtze River Basin.
Singapore-based water technology company ZWEEC Analytics has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) agreement with the Yangtze River Monitoring and Scientific Research Centre, the Yangtze River Authority.
The partnership will see RMB70 million (US$10.9 million) invested into the project over three years in an effort to contribute towards improving the ecological environment of the Yangtze River Basin.
Qiu Guangsheng, director of the Yangtze River Authority, said the partnership could also “contribute towards bilateral trade and investment between Singapore and China”.
The MoU will see the Yangtze River Authority leverage ZWEEC's analytics, artificial intelligence and predictive modelling to enable sustainable management of water resources in the region.
“We are delighted to be able to bring our partnership with Yangtze River Authority to a new level, as we actively support China’s Belt and Road Initiative.”
The Yangtze River is China’s most vital domestic waterway that accounts for around 40 per cent of China’s freshwater resources.
Covering 19 provinces in China, it provides the main source of water for almost 600 million people and as a region, accounts for 45 per cent of China’s GDP.
Building on a solid foundation
This is not the first time ZWEEC’s has worked with the Yangtze River Authority.
Back in 2013, a pilot project saw ZWEEC develop the first Fish Activity Monitoring System (FAMS) in China’s Yangtze Basin Water Environment Monitoring Center in collaboration with Singapore’s Public Utilities Board (PUB) and China’s Ministry of Water Resources.
Since then, ZWEEC has built two systems to help safeguard the Yangtze River Basin: The Aquapro and Algapro.
Both technologies have been used to monitor the water quality of China’s domestic drinking water sources.
Liu Haobing, CEO of ZWEEC China, said: “We are delighted to be able to bring our partnership with Yangtze River Authority to a new level, as we actively support China’s Belt and Road Initiative and play an active role in China’s water environmental safety, ecological protection and sustainable urban water management.”
What is China's Belt and Road Initiative?
China's Belt and Road Initiative developed by the People's Republic of China seeks to connect Asia with Africa and Europe via land and maritime networks.
It has three key goals: improving regional integration, increasing trade and stimulating economic growth.
The name was coined in 2013 by China’s President Xi Jinping, who drew inspiration from the concept of the Silk Road established during the Han Dynasty 2,000 years ago – an ancient network of trade routes that connected China to the Mediterranean via Eurasia for centuries.
This MoU can be seen as China's continuation to develop relationships with external parties to develop technologies to better understand and monitor China's vast water infrastructure.
Last year, another international collaboration brought together German and China in a research project focused on looking into the treatment of industrially processed water by extracting salt.
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