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Denise Tsang

Beijing Enterprises Holdings  plans to  share in the capital's  infrastructure boom in the run-up to the 2008 Olympic Games,  earmarking about 600 million yuan   for three major civic projects, according to vice-chairman and president Zhang Honghai.

Mr Zhang  said the red-chip conglomerate and its allies had won a contract to build a two billion yuan  water treatment  facility in the capital.

The company  also planned  to bid on a one billion yuan, 10km expressway linking the  airport  with the city centre, and a  waste management project in Beijing's Haidian district, he said.

After Beijing Enterprises' annual shareholder meeting yesterday, Mr Zhang said infrastructure projects, especially civic utilities,  were the  firm's top investment priority.

'Utilities are our investment focus. But we will  invest in projects  only if they meet our  requirement for internal rates of return,' he said.

Mr Zhang declined to quantify these requirements,  citing commercial secrecy.

Last year, infrastructure earnings accounted for more than 62 per cent  of the  company's  $453.26 million profit.

Mr Zhang said construction of  the water purification plant would  start as soon as the problem  of sourcing the water was resolved.

'There are water shortages in the north, and we're working out how and when water will be brought  from southern China,' he said.

The plant, in which Beijing Enterprises owns a 50 per cent  stake,  is designed with a treatment capacity of  500,000 tonnes  of water annually and  is scheduled for completion in 2008.

Beijing Enterprises  was confident of winning its bid  for the waste management facility,  Mr Zhang said.

Beijing Enterprises planned to take a 33 per cent  interest in the plant, which  would have a daily processing capacity of 1,500 tonnes  of refuse, he added.



Red chip to ride boom in Beijing