China Green Investment Stumbles
March 30th, 2007
As Beijing readies itself for the 2008 Summer Olympics, Li Enhui thinks he has the solution to the brutal sandstorms that whip across the city each spring: specially designed water bags that allow trees to take root in the desert. It sounds like a great idea, one worth investing in, but Li – like thousands of other entrepreneurs in China – cannot penetrate the arcane and frustrating world of Chinese investment.
Despite a rampaging economy, debt-laden banks prefer to take advantage of recent Communist deregulation of real estate, seeing no value in technology or start-ups. Combined with China’s loose intellectual property laws and massive bureaucracy, China’s small green companies struggle to survive.
In Mr. Li’s case, he’s getting help from the DC-based World Resources Institute, a green think tank [Green tanks usually mean algae. Try cleaning more often. – ed.] that has raised more than $19 million for environmental start-ups around the world. Even that amount of money is a drop in the bucket, but at least it’s a start.
Link to LA Times
Link to World Resources Institute
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