A Liuzhou municipal government delegation has signed US$800 million worth of agreements with SAR enterprises to develop the city's infrastructure.
Song Jidong, the mayor of Liuzhou, the industrial hub of Guangxi province, said in Hong Kong yesterday that the delegation had entered into 13 agreements on infrastructure projects, including underground pipeline projects and a logistic system.
The projects also included two turnkey waste-water treatment plants, for which the municipal government had signed a letter of intent with Hong Kong-listed Global Green Tech Group and China-based Golden Idea Bio-technology.
Under the agreement, Global Green and Golden Idea will form a 75:25 joint venture with HK$480 million to invest in building the treatment plants, which are planned to begin operating by the end of 2004.
Liuzhou city government will grant both plants a 25-year concession. During that period the plants will receive a service fee of 50 fen (about 46 HK cents) for each tonne of waste water they treat.
The plants are designed to carry a daily capacity of 500,000 tonnes, which allows them to handle almost all the waste water Liuzhou generates.
As the mainland government was actively working on environmental protection reforms, Mr Song said an annual increment was expected in the fees for waste-water treatment.