Provincial-regional cooperation + peer-to-peer ecological cooperation, is there a new way for the development of provincial environmental protection platforms?

A few days ago, the author wrote an article on the waste incineration market in Guangdong, which mentioned that Jiangmen City and Jieyang City had a project under bidding at that time

According to the company's investigation, Public Energy (Jiangmen) Co.

As a key environmental protection platform and business focus created by the Guangdong Provincial Government, compared with other leading enterprises in the province, such as Guanghuan Investment, Shenneng Environmental Protection, Yuefeng Environmental Protection, etc.

According to the author's previous prediction, with the major social background and changes in the environmental protection market in recent years, especially after the Guangdong Environmental Protection Group becomes its current name in 2021, the development pace of the Guangdong Environmental Protection Group in the Guangdong waste incineration market may be accelerated.

Congenital "insufficient" provincial environmental protection platform in the end?

The author has previously published two articles, "Establishment of Environmental Protection Groups in Various Provinces and Cities, Is It a Market Crisis or a Turnaround?" and "Revisiting the Phenomenon of Provincial Environmental Protection Groups: Don't Worry Too Much About the Platform Market Takes All", which specifically discussed the topic of provincial environmental protection platforms

For the provincial environmental protection groups, although they have advantages in capital, technology, and resources with the support of the provincial government, their real competitors are large central enterprises such as Changjiang Ecology, CECEP, and Everbright Environment, as well as Beijing Enterprises.

A person in charge of a provincial-level platform introduced to the author: the provincial-level environmental protection platform’s financing capability is not as good as that of central enterprises, and the mechanism flexibility is not as good as that of private enterprises, and the situation is actually quite embarrassing

Xue Tao, executive director of the E20 Research Institute, and others believe that provincial platform companies, as local state-owned enterprises, are politically reliable and have the responsibility of state-owned enterprises.

The embarrassment of the provincial environmental protection platform As mentioned above, it is very difficult for central enterprises to operate projects in local areas, and it is also very difficult to communicate and coordinate

Jiangsu Environmental Protection Group took the initiative to directly connect with cities and counties into a new way to break the bureau?

A senior industry practitioner and observer introduced that the establishment of environmental protection platforms in various places is to solve the problem of government payment tension, and the second is to ease environmental political pressure

It is precisely based on the original intention mentioned above and the consideration that governments at all levels have such considerations, the provincial environmental protection platform is equivalent to being sandwiched between the city and county platforms and the central enterprises, and many people think that it is difficult to do more

As far as I know, in recent years, there have been frequent news of the establishment of environmental protection groups in various provinces and cities, but many companies have fallen into silence after their establishment, and the market expansion effect has been achieved

Although Jiangsu Environmental Protection Group has the embarrassment mentioned by the previous professionals, it also has its own relative advantages: it is lower than the central enterprise level, but it is rooted in the local area; it does not have the local resources of the local environmental protection platform at the city and county level, but it can coordinate some from the perspective of the provincial level.

It has direct business docking with some cities and counties

In the report of China Water Network, since 2020, Jiangsu Environmental Protection Group has successively cooperated with Pei County, Shuyang County, Haizhou District of Lianyungang City, Kunshan City, Nanjing Jianye District, Wuxi Xishan District, Changshu City, Suzhou High-tech Zone and The governments of Xiangcheng District, Yangzhou Jiangdu District, Jiangyin High-tech Zone and other places signed strategic cooperation agreements, and established regional branches in Suzhou, Wuxi and other places

Among them, the above-mentioned Jiangsu Environmental Protection Industrial Park was established in Jianye District, Nanjing, and three subsidiaries of the provincial environmental protection group, Jiangsu Environmental Protection Industry Co.

Such a development model is considered by some industry insiders to be similar to the "ABO" model [Authorize-Build-Operate]: the local government conducts cooperation and authorization through competitive procedures or direct signing of agreements, and enterprises Provide project investment and financing, construction and operation services to the government, and be responsible for handing over the project facilities upon expiration of the cooperation period, and the government will provide certain financial support to the enterprise as agreed
.

While directly connecting with the municipal and county governments, Jiangsu Environmental Protection Group is also actively cooperating with some local enterprises with rich foundation and characteristics to realize the improvement of the industrial chain: In October 2020, a strategic cooperation agreement was signed with Jiangsu Water Source Company; 2021 In June 2022, signed a contract with Jinhuan Environmental Protection Technology Equity Investment Fund; in January 2022, reached a strategic cooperation with Suke Environmental Protection, a leading membrane technology and product; in March 2022, the subsidiary Jiangsu Environmental Engineering Technology Company and Jinshan Environmental Protection Group Jiangsu Huangong Taihu Lake Ecological Technology Co.
, Ltd.
is a joint venture with a total investment of nearly 1 billion yuan to build a green environmental protection technology research and innovation center, an industrial technology innovation alliance and an environmental protection high-end equipment base around the Taihu Lake
.

The best choice for provincial-regional cooperation + peer-to-peer ecological cooperation or provincial environmental protection platform

According to Dr.
Pan Gong, chief researcher of the Solid Waste Industry Research Center of the E20 Research Institute, most of the provincial environmental protection platforms are initiated by the provincial SASAC and incubated by urban investment companies.
Operational assets such as waste incineration plants and sewage treatment plants
.
On the other hand, the provincial platforms incubated by environmental protection systems such as Jiangsu Environmental Protection Group will have slightly different development paths, especially in the initial stage.
Their main business is based on environmental protection market supervision, and there are more social responsibilities and market supervision.
undertake
.

Today, with the approval of the central government, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council has established the Science and Technology Innovation Bureau and the Social Responsibility Bureau to further promote the in-depth implementation of innovation-driven development strategies and active fulfillment of social responsibilities by central and state-owned enterprises, reflecting the country's orientation and expectations for the development of state-owned enterprises
.

For each provincial government, it is feasible to form regional cooperation between the central and provincial governments, and at the same time, to form ecological cooperation within the province, or to strengthen, optimize, and expand the environmental protection platform at the provincial level (including municipal and county-level ones).
one of the paths
.

As a provincial-level environmental protection platform with a high degree of marketization and an economically developed province, it is unclear how far Jiangsu Environmental Protection Group can go and what it will develop into.
However, its initiative and model exploration may help more provincial-level The development of the environmental protection platform provides some references
.

Experts believe that provincial-level environmental protection platforms are closer to local governments and industry management departments.
Compared with market-oriented companies or lower-level platform companies, they understand the provincial government's macro and industry policies better, and implement government policies more effectively
.
If you want to develop better in the future, the provincial environmental protection platform may try to cooperate with other local state-owned enterprises, especially some technology-based enterprises, using their technology and resources as a stepping stone, and then combining their own provincial platform advantages, in cooperation Learning, to realize the integration of the advantages of provincial supervision and technical resources, to meet the needs of local government environmental governance, and to help promote the development of local enterprises
.

In addition, it is also possible to combine equipment manufacturing state-owned enterprises to jointly develop and manufacture environmental protection equipment, or combine with local state-owned enterprises in other industries to jointly develop an ecological environment-oriented development model (EOD) to create additional value for local ecological environment governance
.
In the field of soil remediation, it can also combine with local state-owned enterprises of real estate development type to explore the model of soil remediation + real estate commercial development to solve the problem of soil remediation funds
.

According to the statistics of China Water Network, so far, almost every province in China has established its own provincial environmental protection platform
.
Under the increasingly stringent environmental pressure, in the face of competition from central enterprises, other state-owned enterprises, and leading market-oriented enterprises, provincial environmental protection groups may have more development paths to choose from, but integrating resources in the province for cooperation can undoubtedly be called It's the best choice
.

There is still a long way to go, and we may have better expectations for the provincial environmental protection group
.
The future industrial competition pattern seems to have been determined, but the development of provincial environmental protection platforms may bring more variables to the market
.