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UK India Business Council provide a range of company specific market entry, research, consultancy, and expansion services to help you understand the opportunities in India, shape your strategy, and make informed decisions about exporting, investing in, and growing in India. Primed to assess your business, our experts run exhaustive diagnostics to help you establish the right route to market for your business.

Opportunities for UK companies include:

• Waste management and Recycling.
• Waste to Power systems
• Waste water management.
• All on a municipal scale.
  
  

John Tingle is the Trade Team Manager for UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) in the East of England (Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire). A Chartered Chemical Engineer by training he has worked at senior level in many different process industries for companies such as Suez, Morrison Construction, PCI (now Black and Veatch) and Bord na Mona. A specialist in the Environmental and Low Carbon sectors John’s experience is principally in water and wastewater treatment (including leachate treatment) and also includes composting and anaerobic treatment of waste in a career spanning more than 40 years.

Major projects in planning include:

• Design and Construction of a Water Desalination Plant at Tseung Kwan O and associated infrastructure (project cost c. £1bn)
• Relocation of Sha Tin Sewage Treatment Works (c. £2½bn)
• Waste Treatment (Food Waste, Waste to Energy, Integrated Waste Management Facility, etc) and Disposal Facilities (c. £1bn+)
• Water Main Replacement and Rehabilitation / Water Intelligent Network (WIN) (c. £300m+)

These relatively huge procurements will be won by a large prime bidder but offer the opportunity for UK businesses to either be part of a bid consortium (the majority of the opportunity at that stage being in design and consulting engineering and management) or to enter the supply chain following the award of the prime contract.  It is likely that these projects will call for and value significant technical expertise and local experience, so partnership with a local company is likely to offer the greatest chance of success.  They may not prove very suitable for brand new exporters unless they can demonstrate significant UK domestic industry experience.

Country overview – in relations to sector opportunities:

• HK continues to be a substantial market for UK exports – currently 12th largest market for goods (3rd largest in APAC) and market worth over £2bn/year in services – but goods export values declined in the second half of 2015.
• World's 8th largest trading economy - as well as (still) gateway to mainland China and A-Pac.
• Many UK companies have APAC HQs in HK – latest stats were some 126 UK companies with regional HQs here and some 630 in total have offices here.  Many more have agents and distributors.
• Significant amounts of investment come from HK (and from China via HK) into the UK creating jobs and growth.

Hong Kong Economy

 The four pillar economic sectors of Hong Kong are: trading and logistics (23.4% of GDP in terms of value-added in 2014), tourism (5.1%), financial services (16.6%), and professional services and other producer services (12.4%). Government development priorities lie in cultural and creative, medical services, education services, innovation and technology, testing and certification services and environmental industries.

Opportunities in Hong Kong

 UKTI support for UK companies focuses primarily upon the opportunities arising from Hong Kong’s programme of social and economic infrastructure development.  A series of High Value Projects/Campaigns offers opportunities in all stages of project lifecycles, from master planning, design and environmental consultancy through construction, electrical and mechanical engineering, equipment and interiors, to support, training and education:

• West Kowloon Cultural District (WKCD) - one of the world’s largest cultural projects to construct 17 museum and performance venues
• Kai Tak Development (KTD) - a huge (area 8 times that of Canary Wharf) and highly complex urban regeneration development project
• Transport – Hong Kong has a 15 year railway development programme
• Hong Kong Airport - third runway expansion project is now underway at a cost of over £11bn
• Healthcare - Government has set aside a dedicated provision of $200 billion (£18bn) for a ten-year hospital development plan to enable the Hospital Authority (HA) to expand and upgrade healthcare facilities
• Education – focussed on development of an academic city; British Schools and educational supplies
• Urban Regeneration and Built Heritage – focussing on the redevelopment of East Kowloon into a new Central Business District plus other industrial revitalisation and redevelopment projects valued in excess of £1.5bn
• Macao Leisure and Retail – existing resorts undertaking significant expansion projects and developing entertainment and retail facilities.

Business Environment

• Hong Kong has traditionally been a very welcoming market for UK and international companies to do business, with an enduring appeal built on political stability, the rule of law, free market principles, free flow of information, and English as the language of business.  For the past 21 years Hong Kong has been ranked as the ‘World’s Freest Economy’ by the Heritage Foundation/Wall Street Journal.  The index measures economies in 10 areas, including trade, business, investment and property rights. Hong Kong scores particularly well on business, trade, financial and labour freedoms.
• As in all markets, the competition is entrenched and growing.  Chinese companies, Koreans, Japanese and Americans are becoming more and more active.  There are also growing French and German interests.

Personal Profiles

Richard has been the Deputy Trade Commissioner in Hong Kong for 4 years. Sector interests include Environment and Power & Renewable Energy

Frances Moffett-Kouadio is the Trade Commissioner to Hong Kong & Macao. She joined DTI (now the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills-BIS) as a fast-streamer in 2001, following a successful teaching career. At DTI she led on an EU Directive, wrote the Departments first Equality Impact Assessment and worked on the Business Support transformation programme, before joining UK Trade & Investment in 2004.  Frances has a range of experience in different markets, including Iraq, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, South Africa and was Director of Trade & Investment at the British Embassy in Abu Dhabi for the five years prior to taking up the role of Trade Commissioner in Hong Kong in 2014.

Opportunities for waste management companies to provide waste-to-energy solutions in 7 Indonesian cities.

Management of waste is becoming a major problem in Indonesia. Early this year the Indonesian government issued Presidential Decree No. 18 of 2016 to accelerate the development of waste-to-energy in 7 cities, namely:

• Jakarta
• Tangerang
• Bandung
• Semarang
• Surakarta
• Surabaya
• Makassar

Currently Indonesia is facing difficulties in implementing PPP projects due to the complexity of tender process. However, this regulation provides a shortcut and allows the city mayors to directly appoint developers for waste-to-energy projects, creating immediate opportunities. To that end, the government seeks participation by companies providing waste-to-energy technologies besides incineration, such as gasification and pyrolysis. A minimum 1000 tonnes of waste per day will be processed, and the State Utility guarantees the purchase of electricity produced by the facility. Under the Waste Law, the government will finance waste management activities from the state/regional budget. In addition, Feed in Tariff for electricity generated from Municipal Waste is available at between US$ 18,77 to 22,43 cents per kiloWatt Hour.

Country Overview

With a population around 250 million, Indonesia is the fourth most populous country and is a home to the world’s 16th largest economy. The speed and scale of urban growth is astounding, 53% of population lives in cities, not only producing 74% of GDP but also at least 200.000 tonnes of waste per day. 

The management of waste is becoming a major problem in Indonesia as the cities are growing even faster than the infrastructure development. 

UK Trade & Investment helps business export and grow into global markets. In Indonesia we help UK companies increase their competitiveness through overseas trade in Indonesia. Our team exist to help British businesses succeed in overseas country like Indonesia. We get out and meet people to find out about opportunities and then getting British companies excited about those opportunities, before finally helping them when they decide to take the plunge.  Work closely with British Chamber of Commerce in Indonesia, we identify potential partners or distributors, sound out their interest in a company, make introductions to key decision-makers, and when necessary we help businesses overcome obstacles. We give British companies a ready-made network of experienced companies and potential partners to learn from.  

Major opportunities for British companies include:

Consultancy: general and detailed design and project preparation and feasibility studies for closing of non-compliant landfills and construction of new ones as well as the development of waste management plans; supervision of works for closing of non-compliant landfills and construction of new ones; technical assistance; asset management; publicity and awareness campaigns (on selective collection, sorting, recycling, composting); environmental impact assessments.

Works: construction of sorting, recycling and composting facilities; construction of municipal waste disposal facilities and transfer stations; construction of adequate facilities for municipal hazardous waste (medical waste, electric and electronics waste, etc.); closure of non-compliant landfills; recovery of gas from landfills, where appropriate.

Equipment supply: acquisition and installation of selective collection systems; acquisition of waste transport vehicles; acquisition of equipment and technology, such as: waste sorting, separating and shredding technologies.

A significant problem identified in Romania before and after joining the EU is the inadequate waste management and recycling system. The main issues are:

• under 3% of the municipal waste is reused; over 97% is landfilled, with the main method of waste disposal remaining landfilling;
• 240 landfills of the 251 municipal landfills in urban areas do not comply with EU environmental standards;
• there is no organised waste management services in the majority of rural areas, leading to a high number of unauthorised landfills (approx. 2,700).

To address these issues, which were only partially solved during the 2007-2013 EU funding framework, tenders will be organised in many of the 42 counties for the development of integrated waste management systems and extension of waste management infrastructure. Romania’s allocation in the current EU funding exercise (2014-2020) for this particular sector is 2.9 billion Euro, with 3.41 billion Euro total value of identified projects in the waste management and recycling market.

Attendee Profile

Senior Trade Adviser, leading on the regional Infrastructure campaign in Central and Eastern Europe (11 countries). Sectors covered: Water & Environment, Railways, Roads, Airports, Ports.

Singapore has a Water and Waste high value opportunity in market:
The Deep Tunnel Sewerage System Phase 2 is comprised of a co-located Integrated Waste Management Facility (IWMF) as well as a Water Reclamation Plant (WRP) which are integrated with one another. The project also includes construction of a 40km sewer tunnel as well as over 60km of link sewers.

UKTI is currently working on engaging the UK supply chain for both water and waste elements of the project and educating companies on the opportunities in the market. Key procurement timelines should be shared and understood this year so that UK companies can position themselves to bid or partner. New exporters can access these market opportunities if they have sufficient time to partner or to register a business entity in Singapore.

Waste-to-energy: The country is proactively looking for innovative and efficient solutions to employ in its future incineration plants

Food Waste: Singapore, has a serious issue with food waste. Even though the country recycles a respectable 60% of its waste, only 13% of food waste is recycled. The Government is trying to implement technological and policy level interventions to tackle the issue.

Innovative technologies: The NEA is looking for companies offering innovative solutions in the waste management sector. Due to manpower issues, the Government is scouting for technologies such as automated cleaning vehicles for premises, automated street cleaning vehicles etc.

E-Waste: One of the major issues affecting Singapore is the high levels of e-waste being generated every year (around 60 million kg in2014). Only a fraction of that is recycled or disposed of properly. In order to address the issue, NEA is studying the option of having a regulated national system to collect, recycle and manage e-waste. 

Other opportunities: NEA is also assessing ways to reduce domestic waste generated in the country. Singapore saw a 1 percentage point drop to 19 per cent in the domestic recycling rate in 2014. Companies could also look at offering solutions that assist households improve their recycling capacity. Another area of focus the re-use of ash produced as a result of the incineration of waste. 

• Water & Waste Infrastructure – Engineering consultancies/ Other specialist consultancies (Project Management, Environmental Impact Assessment etc)
• Supply Chain – Valves/Pipes/Pumps/Cable Systems/Process Equipment
• Waste 2 Energy Technology Companies
• Automation – Bailers, Sorters, automated systems of any kind( including software platforms)

Singapore is a small wealthy city state with increasing issues around land scarcity and rising waste levels.

The country has a land area of approx 700sq km with the Government currently reclaiming a great deal of land to accommodate infrastructure growth 

Ideally Singapore sits along where the major east/west shipping lanes converge making it a natural focal point for trade. As such Singapore boasts a very pro business, open economy that is often seen as the barometer for global trade.  The country is often seen as a natural gateway into SEA’s 600 million residents, boasting a low tax and low political risk environment. 

Singapore is positioning itself as a “Clean Technology” hub for the South East Asia region and engages/invests in foreign companies who are looking to test bed of develop their innovations in the market.

Nicola covers Environment sectors for Singapore mainly focused on water, waste and low carbon solutions as well as energy for the South East Asia region as a whole.

Opportunities for UK companies:

Thai government support waste2energy projects by offering incentives for renewable energy in the form of Feed-in-Tariff (FIT) schemes.

Thailand Overview

The Thai government has an aggressive master plan to provide at least 25% of total domestic energy consumption from renewable sources by the year 2022.

Thailand produces about 14.5 million tonnes of municipal solid waste (MSW) per year.  Over the past 12 years the government has increased the budget for local administrations to collect and dispose solid waste.  However, the disposal of municipal solid waste remains a major problem.  There are about 100 proper landfill sites across the country but these only have the capacity to dispose of 45% of the total waste.  In the rural provincial areas, only 5% of solid waste can be properly disposed.  The rest is disposed by open dumping, open burning or left over at the dumping sites.  The increase in personal consumption that creates MSW indicates that Thailand has high potential in converting MSW into energy.

Asa's profile

Asa is a Trade and Investment Manager at UKTI Thailand.  Prior to joining UKTI, she worked as Business Development Manager at Australian Trade Commission in Bangkok.

Asa has 15 years of experiences in Trade.  Her responsible sectors at UKTI are Energy and Education sectors.  She enjoys working in the recycle and waste management areas and has a love for it.  Asa holds a bachelor and master degree in marketing.

Opportunities for UK companies:

• 3 X Waste to Energy projects are expected to cost between £0.5 – 0.6bn 
• 1 x RDF construction project is expected to cost £30m
• 1 x RDF consultancy project
• 3 x CDW projects in Northern Emirates
• 1 x Land Remediation consultancy project in Northern Emirates
• 1 X Sustainable City in Dubai - £5.0bn

Expo 2020 and Experience Economy HVOs are worth approximately £12bn in total (the environment & water element on these HVOs will be a small fraction of the total).

The UAE market always welcomes new exporters especially those that are willing to invest time to build relationships and are willing to invest in providing proof of concept (POC) of their products/technologies.

Adil Khan

Adil Khan leads on the Environment & Water sectors for the UAE and is based at the British Embassy in Dubai. He has extensive knowledge and contacts in these sectors.

The US market has a number of waste management events and activities across the key areas of interest to UK companies. In the Western US, recycling and waste minimization is a particular area of focus as various municipalities are seeking innovative technologies to address reductions of municipal solid waste into landfills. Opportunities exist for energy from waste, recycling and reprocessing, and to an extent machinery and equipment. 

The US market is an open market suitable for new exporters. UK companies, like any overseas exporter, should have the time and financial resources to commit to the market. This may mean having a physical presence through a local office and staff. Particular cities and states in the US may be more suitable than others areas for export opportunities. A local UKTI officer like myself can explain differences between certain locations across the US market. 

Mike Rosenfeld

Mike Rosenfeld has served as Vice Consul with UK Trade & Investment, the British Government’s international business development department at the British Consulate-General, Los Angeles since 2003. As Senior Advisor for Energy, Environment & Infrastructure, he focuses on the clean technology sector and has significant expertise in renewable energy and environmental technologies. Mike also serves as a member of the UK’s Climate Change Group addressing global warming solutions in the US, the British Government’s Clean Energy Strategy team in the US, and is leading the UK's Low Carbon, Know-How Strategic Initiative across North America, including the US and Canada, as well as the USA Water High Value Opportunities (HVO) Program.