Early signs that China, one of the world's worst polluters, is beginning to tackle its environmental impact is seen in some quarters as a big investment opportunity.
Restrictions imposed by the state environmental protection agency, the recent beefing up of the agency to ministry level, and the move by the central bank and banking watchdog to ban banks from lending to heavy polluting industries, are among the signals Asia and emerging market specialist Lloyd George Management has noted.
“China is in the next stage of development and is going to have to spend serious money cleaning up the air, water and soil which has suffered in the last 25 years of hell-for-leather growth,” says Robert Lloyd George, founder and chief executive of the eponymous asset manager, which was set up in Hong Kong in 1991. “I think we will see billions of dollars spent on the greening of China over the next decade and this provides an investment opportunity,” he adds.