French companies expect continued growth, deepened cooperation in China

BEIJING -- The Niukouyu Wetland Park in Southwest Beijing, which occupies an area of 140 hectares, is a witness to the successful collaboration between Chinese and French companies.

The site of the park had been home to an industrial wastewater reservoir of Sinopec Yanshan Petrochemical Company. In 2006, SYPC and Veolia Environnement of France started cooperating on wastewater treatment, discharge, and ecology restoration. In 2017, the site became a wetland park and opened to the public for free, with this treated wastewater as its main water source.

Today, the Niukouyu Wetland Park is a habitat for over 140 species of birds, including rare ones, and a hot destination for tourists and shutterbugs.

Christophe Maquet, Veolia's senior executive vice president for the Asia-Pacific Zone, said that Veolia is "one of the companies that are providing solutions for customers in terms of CO2 savings," and China's "dual carbon" goal is "a very important driver" for the company.

"What we expect from the Chinese market for us in the future will be about decarbonization, de-pollution, as well as the circular economy," Estelle Brachlianoff, CEO of Veolia, said on Wednesday in Beijing.

Earlier this week, in the southern metropolis of Shenzhen in Guangdong province, French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi signed a letter of intent for cooperation with the government of Shenzhen's Pingshan district.

The two sides agreed to accelerate the market access to innovative vaccines and promote innovative development of the biopharmaceutical industry in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Thomas Triomphe, executive vice president and head of vaccines at Sanofi, said the company is currently committed to promoting the landing of several innovative product pipelines in China.

A bio-industry cluster has formed in Pingshan district over recent years. Data showed that by 2022, the number of biopharmaceutical enterprises in Pingshan had exceeded 1,000.

"Sanofi's steady growth in China, especially in vaccines, owes much to the open international business environment created by the Shenzhen municipal government and Pingshan district," said Triomphe.

He added the company would introduce more innovative products and preventive solutions to help support China's public health system and contribute to Shenzhen and the Greater Bay Area's economic growth.