On 21st May, a
British delegation led by Oxford Sustainable Enterprise Ltd. (a consulting and
project management company based in Oxford, UK) representing British
universities, research centres and innovative technology businesses set out to
the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) seminar on sustainable management of water
resources in the context of urbanisation conference being held in Changsha,
Hunan, China. The seminar was co-sponsored by Asia-Europe Foundation, France;
UNESCO; and high-level government agencies in China, such as the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Science and Technology, Hunan provincial
government, and the ASEM Water Resources Research and Development Center.
Representatives of research institutions, government agencies, industries and
businesses from 9 European countries and 9 Asian countries attended the
seminar.
While Oxford Sustainable Enterprise
Ltd. coordinated activities for the British delegation, support was provided by
the British Foreign Commonwealth Office and the British Consulate General in
Guangzhou in China. The ASEM Water Resources Research and Development Center
and officials in Changsha made the British delegation very welcome and
demonstrated exceptional professionalism during the entire event, very
encouraging for British research institutions and businesses seeking to provide
scientific and technological expertise, products and services for sustainable
development in China, especially in management of water resources.
Members of the British Delegation
at the seminar include Professor Caroline Roberts, a Senior Officer from the
Knowledge Transfer Network which is part of the Technology Strategy Board; Dr
Tanya Warnaars, a Senior Scientific Project Manager, at the Centre for Ecology
and Hydrology, part of the Natural Environmental Research Council; Professor
Alistair Borthwick, Chair of Hydrodynamics at the University of Edinburgh and
an Emeritus Fellow at the University of Oxford; and Darren Oliveiro-Priestnall,
CEO of Red Skies Limited, representing British tech businesses. The delegation
was led by Dr Yi Samuel Chen, Director of Oxford Sustainable Enterprise Ltd.
and Research Fellow at Wolfson College, University of Oxford.
Over two days presentations were
given at the seminar, to private business groups and to a top agriculture
university with the objective of developing new partnerships and
collaborations. Positive progress was made at all levels with new exciting
opportunities arising.
The conference culminated with a
historic signing ceremony between the UK technology company Red Skies Limited
and the Chinese technology company Hunan Red Skies Science and Technology
Limited. The signing ceremony held in front of the press, Chinese television
news network and delegates from across Europe and Asia was an MOU that commits
both companies to supplying British technology for smart grids and smart cities
in China including ambitious high tech projects already at the design stages.
This is historic not only for the extremely large scale and importance of the
projects to be supplied by Red Skies but also because this is the first
agreement of its kind initiated by ASEM between a Chinese technology company
and a British technology company. This was the only business MOU signed during
the event demonstrating the strong partnership that exists between both
countries. As well as the official MOU, many more important meetings were held
between Red Skies Limited and a list of important companies and agencies from
China with important agreements reached.
While this is good for British
business more broadly it is also good for British research and academia which
can provide important expertise into many Chinese sectors and develop joint
research and development projects with Chinese research institutions in
sustainability. The Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, for example, has been invited
by the ASEM Water Resources Research and Development Center in Changsha to
jointly develop ecological modelling for an important lake in Hunan province
that takes into account of economic and social dimension of ecological
development. Relevant collaborative projects are being discussed between the
ASEM Water Resources Research and Development Center on the one hand and the
University of Edinburgh, other UK research institutions and the Knowledge
Transfer Network on the other, to jointly tackle some of the critical issues
such as water resources monitoring and waste water treatment in Hunan province.
Oxford Sustainable Enterprise Ltd.
plans to take a British delegation out and travel to Changsha in late September
or early October to follow up on some of the joint projects being initiated at
the seminar. Oxford Sustainable Enterprise Ltd. is also responsible for search
for other technologies and expertise relevant for tackling other aspects of
water management as well as other areas of sustainable development in China
(contact information:
samuel.chen@oxfordsustain.com).
