On May 19, a video symposium on the theme of "Responding to the challenges of the epidemic and promoting the sustainable development of environmental protection industry" was held in the conference room of Tongxing Environmental Protection at Binhu Financial Port in Hefei. The meeting focused on the development of the environmental protection industry at the time of the epidemic to find solutions to the difficulties and pain points, to promote the province's high-quality development of environmental protection industry to contribute to the wisdom and role of the three sides of the government, enterprises and associations. Mr. Xu Hui, Chairman of Yuanchen Technology was invited to attend the seminar and make a speech, the following is the content of the speech,

If there is one word to describe the characteristics of the current environmental protection industry, I think it must be the word "revolution". Compared to the "stability" of the industry's underlying technology, there is a big change brewing outside the environmental industry, and it's not too much to call it the big revolution of the century. These disruptive changes are large enough to reshape the new landscape of the environmental industry in the next 3-5 years.

We all know that globalization is entering a new period: on the one hand, with the development of the international division of labor, scientific and technological progress and the flow of transnational capital, the process of globalization continues to advance; on the other hand, the rise of global protectionism, frequent trade strife, coupled with the repeated attacks of the epidemic, Russia-Ukraine war beyond expectations (the U.S. and Western sanctions against Russia is very intuitive for China to think about), so that the world is in turmoil, set off a wave of counter-globalization, but also make the past high division of labor, deep integration of globalization repeated, regional economic ties increased, the global supply chain showed fragmentation, the industrial chain and supply chain encountered new challenges.

Since the beginning of 2020, the world has started to see a keyword appear frequently: carbon neutrality, and its heat has been stacked up several times. So, why does carbon neutrality appear so frequently?

In fact, it can be summarized more accurately in one sentence: the current carbon peak and carbon neutrality have become the biggest political issue in China, as well as the biggest political issue in the two trade camps of developed and developing countries in the world.

On the one hand, as the world's largest emitter of carbon emissions, China's industry has not yet fully emerged from the dilemma of the "high input, high consumption and high emission" development model, and ecological environmental protection is still facing multiple pressures such as tightening resource and energy constraints and continuous improvement of environmental quality requirements.

On the other hand, carbon neutrality is an upgrade of human's environmental protection, but the essence behind it is a ticket to the first camp of international trade, with this ticket, our products can be exported to developed countries with relatively fair prices and treatment. With the rapid development of China and other countries, carbon neutrality has become a new and higher dimension of world trade and international competition in the future, as the two "roadblocks" of manufacturing costs and technological innovation in developed countries are facing collapse. After all, the West has used the past 100 years of development to reach the peak, while we still have a long way to go compared to them, and many technologies to catch up.

So, once we lose the advantage of environmental protection, it means that we are missing the dimension of international competitiveness, and the lack of competitive dimension is fatal. I always feel that in this battle of environmental protection, environmental protection people to solve the importance of the problem, not at all weaker than conquering the Chinese chip and other problems, and even to a large extent, our ecological and environmental protection battle, from the long-term view of the international situation, there is a battle to determine the role of the world. After all, the new dimension of competition is a new opportunity to see who seizes the first opportunity, only to win the initiative to be a good chess player and usher in a better development.

It is important to see that the future is the forces of globalization and counter-globalization stirring each other. In the face of the new globalization situation, in the national dual carbon strategy to accelerate the implementation of the background, environmental protection companies how to break through the technology "neck" to do a good strategic layout? And should adapt to the need to make what changes? This is a question that requires our long-term thinking.

I believe that this is both a challenge and an opportunity, but also the environmental protection industry in line with the country's development needs the greatest potential.

From the external environment, with the advent of the Internet era, the global new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial change in depth, the Internet of Things, cloud computing, intelligent, digital transformation and upgrading and artificial intelligence and other technologies continue to innovate and continue to deepen the synergistic integration between industries, intelligent energy conservation, environmental protection and other new development of environmental protection industry will continue to emerge, the environmental protection industry "used to look at capital, now look at the management, the future look at technology" trend is also becoming more and more obvious.

From the internal environment, under the influence of the dual carbon strategy, the environmental protection industry is in urgent need of technological innovation, including basic technological innovation, innovation in high value-added technologies and model innovation, which functional high-end materials R & D breakthroughs to meet the needs of national development, the consumption of pollutant stocks, to solve a variety of environmental problems of the moment. To solve such problems need to introduce, cultivate and upgrade a complex team of talents who dare to gnaw the "hard bone" in the field of scientific research gaps, and constantly break through the technology blockade to usher in new developments.

In particular, China is accelerating the implementation of the "double carbon" strategy, need to strongly promote the "high energy consumption, high emissions’ enterprises to take the initiative to transform and upgrade, build a new development pattern of green economy, encourage the recycling of resources, build more zero-carbon industrial parks, zero-carbon hospitals, zero-carbon hospitals, factories, communities and other industries. Schools, factories, communities and other industries to develop a new business model. For environmental protection enterprises, they must take the initiative to comply with the trend of the times, seize the major development opportunities brought about by the "double carbon" strategy, embrace the new business changes brought about by the "double carbon" strategy, and firmly take the road of innovation and development on the basis of ensuring survival, so as to play a good We will play the first move, win the initiative battle, seize new opportunities and win a new future.

First, the introduction of disruptive green innovative technologies. The breakthrough of technology, the integration of system and the application of engineering are the keys to the realization of carbon neutrality! As the national requirements for green economic development become higher and higher, the effectiveness, reliability and sustainability of environmental governance need to be supported by disruptive green innovative technologies. The trend demand for harmless, reduced and resourceful recycling of various types of waste and pollutants will certainly advance the development of disruptive green innovative technologies in the environmental protection industry. Among them, in line with the national needs of the strategic material gaps in the field of research and development, such as functional high-end materials research and development, proton exchange membrane, hydrogen fuel cell catalysts, gas sensing materials, functional and memory catalysts with high value-added, can be applied on a large scale, can improve the core competitiveness of enterprises core technology, will help enterprises gain an advantage in the competition.

Second, acceleration of the upgrade iteration of related production factors. The essence of carbon neutral is a profound energy revolution, is a new upgrade of energy and technology, which will bring a comprehensive reorganization of traditional industries, as well as the large-scale development and application of new clean energy and technology, is a screening out of traditional industries in terms of talent, technology, industry chain, etc. This requires timely transformation and upgrading of environmental protection enterprises, on the one hand, do a good job of new technology, new talent, new management model and other elements of the reserve upgrade, especially the reserve of three to five years or even ten years of industry technology; on the other hand, the existing talent inventory, on the basis of which the upgrade of ideas, skills, technical skills iteration, all-round improve the overall quality of the new opportunity to achieve a magnificent transformation.

Third, adhere to the line of specialization and innovation. In the face of new changes and challenges, accelerate the integration of environmental protection enterprises, to create more invisible champions and specializing in new enterprises is essential, it can be said that the next ten years is the development of specializing in new enterprises in the golden period. On the basis of bigger and stronger, more environmental protection companies need to specialize, refine, specialize, and strive to develop into a niche area of "small giants", Since its establishment, Yuanchen Technology has insisted on the road of specialization, focused on niche markets, focused on the industrial chain, supply chain short board, around the innovation chain, industry chain, data chain, capital chain to do key technologies and products, and constantly improve the ability of industrial technology innovation iteration. The company was awarded as the third batch of national specialized and special new small giant enterprises, and was successfully listed on the science and technology innovation board in 2021. While getting bigger and stronger, the company has increased investment in technological innovation (annual R&D investment accounts for 6%-10%), accelerated the upgrade layout of the emerging industry chain, including testing and monitoring, new energy materials, and building a national two-span platform, etc., to continuously improve its intrinsic development momentum and enhance its resilience and risk resistance.

Fourth, accelerate the construction of a new and improved supply chain system. As a production-oriented enterprises, vigorously build a new and improved industrial supply chain system is to protect the elements of enterprise development and operation. In particular, we must consider the background of the dual carbon strategy, the past supply chain model changes, the original simple processing of incoming materials and other models will be completely eliminated, a new challenge to force environmental protection enterprises to implement transformation and upgrading as soon as possible, from simple processing of incoming materials transformation and upgrading to resource-based, industrial enterprises, by mastering the core technology, occupy the core position in the industry; to the processing and manufacturing and capital integration, continuous investment, acquisition, and mergers and acquisitions of industries with far-reaching characteristics, the formation of cross-science, and strengthen the exploration of different industry sectors on the track to create and develop new market opportunities.

Fifth, the use of intelligent management to speed up the construction of environmentally friendly smart factory. Digitization is not only the "product" of information technology, but also the evolutionary stage of information technology, is the primary premise of building a smart enterprise. Environmental protection enterprises to take advantage of the development of the Internet into the tide, with the collective power of society to complete the digital transformation, so that the digital model throughout the business model and organizational mode of operation. At the same time, environmental protection equipment enterprises to change the traditional production model, based on artificial intelligence, mobile Internet, big data and other sharing economy model of green transformation of production methods to achieve optimal integration of production resources and college talent allocation, in technology to achieve compatible equipment interconnection, data collection, visualization and intelligent decision-making information equipment co-integration and interoperability, and strive to build environmental protection wisdom factory.

In short, SARS created Taobao and Jingdong, the epidemic brought about the application of large-scale innovation and development of Internet-related technologies, and carbon neutral I believe will also bring more thought and radical change to the environmental protection industry. As a strategic emerging industry with the dual attributes of driving economic growth and addressing environmental issues, the only way to practice good internal skills, seize opportunities, active innovation and active transformation is to become an important driving force to support China's supply-side structural reform during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, and help China's economy enter the fast lane of high-quality development.

Looking 30 years forward and 30 years back, driven by the new infrastructure era, the present is undoubtedly entering a new environmental era, the industry curtain has just opened. In such a big era, enterprises must take the initiative to adapt to the situation, adapt to change, adapt to the trend, the use of capital, the power of science and technology, change entrepreneurs into a new era of industrialists, industrialists, with the times, and strive to give back to society. Thank you all! (Xu Hui, Chairman of Yuanchen Technology)