Bloomberg – Updated on Aug 09, 2008
Khazanah Nasional, the Malaysian government’s US$25 billion investment fund, will form a venture on the mainland to tap the potential of a country poised to lead the world in the manufacture of renewable-energy products.
Khazanah will invest US$150 million over three years in a venture to develop at least eight municipal waste-to-energy projects on the mainland with Beijing China Sciences General Energy and Environment, the Kuala Lumpur-based company said in a statement yesterday, declining to provide equity details.
The investment is the Malaysian fund’s first in the environment-related industry which is “booming with sector investment growth of about 40 per cent year on year”, said Khazanah managing director Azman Mokhtar.
“For a major developing nation like China, the need to meet its thirst for energy while minimising environment pollution is of paramount importance and a fine balance.”
China, the biggest emitter of climate-altering greenhouse gases, is already the largest global maker of solar cells, wind power turbines, low-carbon energy technology and other renewable-energy products, the Climate Group said in a report.
Premier Wen Jiabao wants the government to invest 2 trillion yuan (HK$2.28 trillion) by 2020 to increase the proportion of renewable energy in the total amount of energy used while developing hydropower, biomass fuel, wind and solar-generated electricity.
The mainland wants renewable energy to cater for 15 per cent of the country’s total primary energy consumption by 2020, from 8 per cent now.
Power generated from municipal waste sources may increase 15 times to 3,000 megawatts from about 200 MW now, according to the country’s target.
Khazanah, the majority partner in its venture with Beijing China Sciences, is in the process of buying a project with 800 tonnes a day of installed capacity, with “three or four more in the pipeline”, Mr Mokhtar said.