SUEZ Environnement Signs a New 25-Year Public-Private Partnership Agreement for Water Services With Qingdao, China
October 11 2004 - 5:38AM
PR Newswire (US)
SUEZ Environnement Signs a New 25-Year Public-Private Partnership
Agreement for Water Services With Qingdao, China PARIS, France,
October 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Gerard Mestrallet, Chairman
and Chief Executive Officer of SUEZ, in the presence of Jacques
Chirac, President of the French Republic and Mr. Hu Jintao,
President of the People's Republic of China, has signed a new
private-public partnership for water services with Qingdao. The
partnership, involving two contracts, calls on the skills of
Degremont to construct a new water treatment plant, and on those of
the Qingdao Sino French Water Co, the Group's local water concern
in the city, as operators of the plant for the next 25 years. The
joint venture between the city of Qingdao and the Sino-French Water
Development Co., was set up in 2002 when it won the city's first
water contract(1). Today, the Qingdao Sino-French Water Co.,
operates the two main water treatment plants in Qingdao, with a
total capacity of 440 000 m3/d. This represents 90% of the
installed production capacity in Qingdao and meets the water
requirements of most of the urban population of Qingdao, or some
2.3 million inhabitants. For SUEZ, the extension of the initial
partnership reflects the quality of the ties between Suez and
Qingdao City Hall. With this contract, the municipal authorities
have undertaken to purchase the water produced by the plant under
guaranteed conditions in terms of prices and minimum volumes. This
third plant for the company, with a capacity of 180,000 m3/d,
representing a total sales turnover of more than 80 million Euros,
is scheduled for entry into service at the beginning of 2006. The
one-third increase in output enabled by the plant provides the city
with a high degree of flexibility to face future economic and
demographic growth. Qingdao is one of the main cities on the
Chinese coast, located in the province of Shandong. Its highly
dynamic economy is driven by tourism, port activity (Qingdao is the
third largest port in China for container business), and new
technologies. Qingdao is also the location for the TSINGTAO
breweries, whose beers are exported around the world. It has some 7
million inhabitants, 2.3 million of whom live in the city center.
Qingdao will play host to the water-sports events in the 2008
Olympic Games. SUEZ ENVIRONMENT, a division of SUEZ, provides
equipment and services that protect the environment and deliver the
essentials of life. Its activities include drinking water
production and distribution, wastewater collection and treatment,
and waste treatment and recovery. Through its three international
brands, Ondeo (water distribution), Degremont (water treatment
plants) and SITA (solid waste management), SUEZ ENVIRONMENT employs
over 82,900 people worldwide and in 2003, generated a turnover of
12.3 billion Euros. (1) See our press release dated May 22, 2002: 2
water treatment plants, 25 years, Euro 430 million in estimated
total sales turnover DATASOURCE: Suez CONTACT: SUEZ, Luan
Greenwood, Tel.: +33-(0)1-58-18-44-17, Maya Alexandresco, Tel.:
+33-(0)1-58-18-54-61
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