Dr. Ni Jinren, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Professor and Vice-President of the College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering of Peking University.

Dr. Ni Jinren throws light upon the history of China's environmental protection industry through comparison.

In the early 1990s, at the time when Hong Kong returned to China, Hong Kong's environmental protection industry and the consulting industry associated with it were very good, while such things haven’t showed up in mainland yet.

In the late 1990s, China began talking about sewage treatment and even ambitiously wanted to open up international markets. After a European research trip, they found that sewage treatment in Europe is nearly perfect, which China's industrial wastewater treatment has not seen, and relevant problems have been solved by European scientists. This marks a step behind of the development of others.

Later, China's problem of the black and odorous water body has not been solved, but the European Union countries are already talking about ecological restoration, ecological protection, ecological health. So, there's another lag.

　　Now looking at some of the countries that are growing faster than us, the ecological restoration phase is almost complete, starting already talking about natural capital, the productivity of natural resources.

　　Dr. Ni Jinren believes that the environmental protection industry development, from the past to the future, is undergoing a new process that corresponds with environmental protection concept, i.e., people’s mind with regards to economic and social development is changing step by step.

　　Dr. Ni Jinren said, “now when it comes to the environmental protection industry, although the importance of financial support is highlighted, policies, regulations and incentives draw more attention. In addition, the problem of following suit blindly exists in every period of China's development. It’s high time to change the situation. ”