About the Conference

This conference is based on the realization that one of the crucial indicators of development in the 21st century will be the extent to which business and international education will address the challenges of the environment, which consists of the conditions and circumstances surrounding and affecting human beings.

These conditions not only involve scarcity of such resources as water and energy to cater for the needs of the growing population of the world but they are also often accompanied by technological and economic activities that pollute water and air apart from depleting nonrenewable, fossil fuels resources such as coal, petroleum, and natural gas.

One of the challenges that this conference will address pertains to the collaboration between international business and education in water management involving, inter alia, the implementation of conservation methods such as Water Demand Management, which is a strategy to improve the efficient use of existing water supplies by using technological, educational and economic measures.

The conference will address the need for different countries in the world to promote new educational programs in their technological institutions for the management of water resources and thus create business opportunities for the development of eco-industries. .

With regard to eco-industries this conference will be addressed by companies that have won contracts in different countries for carrying out environment-related projects such as wastewater treatment, desalination, soil treatment, solar energy for heat and electrical power, food and vegetable fuels, water power, wind power, and geothermal energy (terrestrial heat).

U.S. Department of Commerce points out that the global market for environmental goods and services (EGS) is large and growing fast. The Department notes that United States is the world's biggest producer and consumer of EGS and the next largest net exporter of environmental goods after Germany; Japan is the third.

According to the U.S. Office of Technology and Assessment, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) estimated that the worldwide environmental market was 200 billion in 1990 and was expected to grow at a 5.5 percent annual rate to $300 billion in 2000. It is worth noting that according to OECD the United States EGS market is 42 percent of the global market.

In this context we note that the American company Ionics (NYSE-ION) has won two environment-related contracts. One of the contracts, won in 2002, is in the amount of US$320 million for equipment supply pertaining to designing, building, operating and maintaining a 100 million gallon per day wastewater treatment near Kuwait City. The other contract, won in 2003, involves a projected US$225 million capital investment and requires Ionics to work jointly with Algerian Energy Commission (AEC) on a twenty-five (25) year seawater desalination build-own-operate (BOO) project in Algeria, Africa.

U.S. Department of State points out that South Africa is the largest African market for U.S. environmental products and services and clean energy technologies. U.S. environmental and clean energy companies sold over $68 million worth of products to South Africa in 2001.

The main U.S. environmental technology exports to South Africa are air pollution control and waste management equipment. The U.S. Department of State estimates that the local market for these two sectors is expected to grow at a rate of over 10% over the next five years. There are obvious market opportunities in South Africa for, as the country's 44 million population increases and becomes more urbanized, there will be additional demands on the land, air and water resources. Consequently a greater need will exist for effective pollution control; water/wastewater treatment and conservation measures; and clean energy technologies.

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Last modified: Feb 09, 2004, 11:19 EST