Eco Industry: France is
easy to export
-Paul Cambon, Journalist, France
The environment and sustainable development
are global issues today. "The international dimensions is now forum for excellence
and law in environment strategies. This reality has caused a genuine industry to be
created, the Eco-industry", emphasizes Jean-Claude Oppeneau, Deputy Director of
International Action of the ADEME (Environmental and Energy Management Agency).
In this new sector, rapidly becoming
international and no doubt promised greater liberalization of trade, France is holding her
own on the export markets behind the United States, Germany and Japan. The proof of her
dynamism is that no less than 25% of the foreign trade financial guarantees are designated
for the environment. And in the provision of some services (water and waste), France is
the world's number one. This is due in particular to major groups such as
Suez-Lyonnaise-des-Eaux and La Generale des Eaux (today the part of Vivendi Environment),
who have more than a century's expertise and know-how.
The World Bank has sanctioned the
"French model" of concession or delegated management, which is a partnership
method between the public and private sectors in the management of urban services. In the
course of the last ten years, this model has inspired many countries throughout the world
And the continuing growth in the demand for provision of delegated management of
environmental service by local authorities (a market doubling every ten years) as well as
the appearance of similar demands for major enterprises contracting out their waste or
water management" considerable prospects" according to Jean-Luc Trancart,
communications Director of La Lyonnaise-des-Eaux.
May first 1993 deserves to go down in
history. On that day, Aguas Argentina's, the Euro-Argentinean Consortium headed by La
Lyonnaise-des-Eaux, took over the contract to provide water and purification service of
the Buenos Aires conurbation for thirty years. The radius of the concession then covered
nine million inhabitants. "It was the first contract of this size where the transfer
of responsibility from the public to the private sector for the management of a collective
service in an emergent country materialized", recalls Denis Levy, General Director of
the Institute of Delegated Management.
Suez-Lyonnaise-des-Eaux and Vivendi are
increasing the number of water distribution and / or purification contracts everywhere
throughout the world. Of few examples of this are the former, the cities of
Djakarta(Indonesia), Casablanca (Morocco) and more recently, Santiago in Chile and Amman
(Jordan) and , for the latter , major cities such as Mexico, Caracas (Venezuela) , Sydney
(Australia), and Calcutta (India).
The two groups, both in industrial and urban
waste sectors (from management to treatment and development), are often universally
acknowledged as operators to be reckoned with. Thus in 1999, Suez-Lyonnaise-des-Eaux
capture the contract for the collection of Barcelona's urban waste while, in September
2000, Onyx, a subsidiary of Vivendi Environment, found itself responsible for cleaning the
city of Alexandria in Egypt.
Other markets, such as those of the countries
of central Europe applying for membership of the European Union, seem promising, as does
Germany, where Vivindi, in partnership with the German group, has signed a contract to
purify waste water and distribute drinking water to 3.5 million Berliners. Nor should we
forget China, where BOT Build operates Transfer operations are probably destined to
increase and …the United States, where local authority markets are only just
beginning to open up.
ON THE AMERICAN MARKET:
On this American market that was its first
foreign market Vevindi strengthened it s investments in 1999. With the subsidiary in the
water sector already, the group acquired US filter, specializing in the wastewater
treatment and number one in state -of - the art micro-filtration technologies.
In the hygiene sector, it bought out the
liquid and toxic waste activities of
Waste Management and of superior services,
the fourth American group in the waste sectors.
Suez-Lyonnaise-des-Eaux was not to be outdone
with the acquisition last year of Nalco and of Calgon and the complete takeover of
UWR-United Water Resources- the second private distributor in United States.
This totally international strategy, based on
development and often heavy investment outside France and on large research and
development budgets, is shared by a number of other major companies such as SAUR, Public
Services Operator or then again, Plastic Omnium. The latter a car equipment manufacturer
was able to diversify in environment with supply of tools and services to local
authorities and companies in the waste and recycling sector. Over 50% of its turnover is
made abroad.
"Beyond the major groups, the potential
of the French Eco-Industry can be even better exploited " , emphasizes Jean-Jacques
Thomas, responsive for Industrial and Commercial promotion at the ADEME.
How?" By erecting a showcase, a French
examples abroad, by more effectively demonstrating the global supply of our
Eco-industrialists, by developing an export plan served by better adapted financial tools
and by meeting the training needs expressed by emergent countries", is the way they
see things at the ADEME. How? "By erecting a showcase of French examples abroad, by
more effectively demonstrating the global supply of our Eco-industrialists, by developing
an export plan served by better adapted financial tools and by meeting the training needs
expressed by emergent countries", is the way they see the things at the ADEME.
Optimism following radical
structural change
-Heinz Boschek, Germany
"I can sense a felling that things are
getting going again the city. Companies have stopped questioning whether to stay in
Berlin, and have started thinking about how they can do more here", stresses Werner
Gegenbauer, President of Berlin's Chamber of Industry and Commerce and head of a firm
which employs almost 10,000 cleaners in Germany's capital city. " As exports pick up,
productivity increases and costs stabilize, where have seen a gentle upturn",
confirms Erich Gerard, Chairman of the Association of MetalWorking and Electrical
Industries in Berlin and Brandenburg and Director of Siemens AG in Berlin. And Rudolf
Stark, Director of Daimler-Benz AG in Berlin, makes the following brief comment:"
Berlin's business world is making a comeback in the competition between the regions".
The situation in mid- 1998: there have never been any arguments among leading business
experts about the promising prospects of the largest demographic conurbation between Paris
and Moscow. But, now for the first time since the reunification, the employers in the
region are also looking more optimistically to the future. Ludwig Erhard, the
"founding father" of the social market economy, once said that the economy
always needs a good dollop of psychology, in the sense of a confidant mood that things
will happen; there is no lack of that among managers of Berlin based firms at present.
The fact that this optimism is not coming out
of thin air is proved by the economic survey by the Chamber of Industry and Commerce for
the first part of 1998. For the first time since the painful and radical structural
upheaval in the economy eight years ago, 59% of the firms in trade, 60% in catering; 67%
in construction, 74% in manufacturing, 77% in transport, 78% in services and 88% in
banking assess their current business position as being between good and satisfactory.
Almost all the sectors are registering clear improvements in their business situation
compared with last year. Following the unprecedented loss of industry after 1990, it is
particularly encouraging for Berlin that the number of manufacturing companies with a
positive underlying assessment has risen by 8% between 1997 and 1998.
A real leap forward is being seen by the
manufacturers of equipment of electricity generation and distribution, which employ almost
21,000 people, or nearly one-third of workers in the entire metal-working and electrical
sector in Berlin. They have increased turnover by 82% since spring 1997. And Belin's
mechanical engineering companies, employing about 14,000 people, have boosted their sales
by more than 13% in the same period. Manufacturers of office and data processing
equipment, most of whom are totally new on the Berlin market, even managed to boost their
sales by nigh on 47% between early 1997 and early 1998. However, this is having little
impact on the labor market, as most of the high-tech firms are small or medium-sized,
employing fewer than 100 people. The growth recorded by automotive manufacturers is, at
slightly over 3% not as spectacular, and the same goes for firms producing medical,
measurement, control and optical technology, at just over 1%. Even so, they provide almost
13,000 people in Berlin with employment. Gegenbaur, head of the Chamber of Commerce, says:
"Everyone knows you should never write people off. And since reunification, more than
30 billion marks have been invested in Berlin each year by the public and private sector.
That simply had to feed through into an economic recovery at some point. Of course, Berlin
still has a lot to do to tackle the effects of structural change. But we have arrived at
the final phase of the necessary painful blows to the industrial structure inherited from
before unification.
A disastrous situation in 1990 in both parts
of Berlin: Nowhere in Germany suffered such severe economic problems as a result of
unification as Berlin. None of the structures created over four decades in the West and
East of the city by the Cold War was propitious for a rapid recovery. In 1989, there were
about 930,000 people in work in West Berlin, 200,000 of them in manufacturing. The gross
domestic product was DM 85 billion. Both industry and services had massive structural
deficiencies in an area which was an enclave of the Federal Republic and fully integrated
into its economic and legal system. West Berlin was nothing more than a region of extended
workbenches for West German companies. Industry was dominated by low-value added,
capital-intensive manufacturing. Major activities like research, development and marketing
were located in West Germany. And the situation in trade transport, banking, insurance and
other services was similar to that in the industry: basically, the large companies
operating nationally and internationally, firms which are so vital in the competition
between the regions, were absent. By providing subsidies for companies and bonuses for
employees, the West German government safeguarded the survival of what was really a
totally inefficient economic location. But that had not been the point during the Cold
war. The point then had been the freedom of the Western part of Berlin as a symbol of
Western world. West German business was doing well. Providing West Berlin with financial
security was not a problem. Almost one-quarter of the workers in the enclave were
employees in public-sector institutions. Roughly 84,000 people relied on unemployment
benefits from the Federal Labor Office in Nuremberg.
Against this background, according to the
findings of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), AFTER THE Wall came down, I
if the previous high-subsidy area was to be seriously integrated into nation-wide
competition, the loss of at least 30,000 industrial jobs would have to be expected in the
Western part iof the City. The economic researchers (based in West Berlin) were harshly
criticized by Bonn for their findings. At the same time, the Federal Government believed
that the mraket-based island of West Berlin- located in the midst orf the upheaval of the
Eastern Germany- would be overwhelmed by orders. Consequently, although the subsidies for
the companies were phased out gradually, it happened over a very short period. However,
the West Berlin firms were not able to satisfy much of the additionall demand for
industrial goods resulting from the collapse of the planned economy in the east of the
Germany. Hardly any of the companies were independent, most were only suppliers of large
companies in the west of Germany. The Eastern Germans placing orders for complete system
of equipment learnt this very quickly and preffered to place their orders directly with
the parent companies in North-Rhine/Westphalia, Bavaria or Baden-Wuttemberg. Following the
end of the subsidies, many West German companies closed their branches in West Berlin,
moved into the cheaper surrounding area or left the region entirely. As a consequence, the
number of unemployed settled at between 150,000 and 180,000 within a few years. More than
100,000 jobs were lost in industry alone. The DIW's pessimistic forecast from 1990 turned
out to be over-opmistic.
At the same time, East Berlin was in no
position to stand on it's own commercial feet at the time of reunification. The communist
regime regarded it as a shop window for the West", and therefore fed it with
subsidies and goods at the expense of the rest of the GDR. In 1989, one-third of the
900,000 people in work there were employed by GDR's government apparatus, which was
concentrated in East Berlin. About 200,000 people were employed in industry, most of them
in Berlin-based management structures of the "industrial combines", structures
which were far removed from the realities of manufacturing in the rest of the GDR. These
elements of central planning dissolved quickest. The number of unemployed has stood at
about 90,000 since 1992. |
