On June 22, 2020, One Belt & One Road Environmental Technology and Industry Alliance (OBOR-ETIA) has successfully received a prestigious project sponsored by the Alliance of International Science Organizations (ANSO). OBOR-ETIA has been launched in 2016 by the CAS-TWAS Centre of Excellence for Water and Environment (CEWE) and a host of Chinese water enterprises. Building upon this excellent opportunity as one of ANSO Professional Associations, OBOR-ETIA will be able to promote different forms of technological communication and cooperation in the Belt and Road countries’ water sectors, and thereby helping addressing water security challenges in the developing world, using Chinese water enterprises’ experience, wisdom and technological know-how derived from the domestic market.

    ANSO is a non-profit, non-governmental international scientific organization founded in 2018 by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and 36 other international science and education institutions from around the world, under the Belt and Road Initiative. ANSO is committed to promoting shared development and advancement of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through catalyzing and implementing concrete international cooperation initiatives in Science, Technology & Innovation and Capacity Building (STIC). ANSO focuses to investigate and then address the most urgent regional and global scientific challenges through partnerships and cooperation with its member countries and institutions.

    OBOR-ETIA is committed to engage more Chinese water companies into implementation of the ANSO project, with the goal of improving project effectiveness and impacts, and meanwhile, creating convenient conditions for Chinese water enterprises to exploit oversea markets. These activities will substantially favor technological communication and cooperation between China and other Road and Belt countries, and contributing to a more safe, resilient, and sustainable water future in the developing world. Simultaneously, these devoted efforts will benefit Chinese experience, technologies, standards, paradigms, and products going aboard.

    Since its establishment, OBOR-ETIA aims at addressing the most pressing water and environmental challenges in Belt and Road Countries. Building upon the well-established cooperative framework that combines talents cultivation, technological cooperation, and engagement of enterprises as integrity, OBOR-ETIA leverages the technology implementation capabilities of enterprises to facilitating scientific and technological cooperation aboard with CAS. In recent years, OBOR-ETIA has organized its member enterprises to join field investigations, conferences, exhibitions and seminars among other professional activities overseas, participate in scientific and technological cooperation in forms of primarily equipment donation and technical training, and engage in the construction of China-Sri Lanka Joint Center for Water Technology Research and Demonstration, China-Iran Joint Research Center for Water and Environment, and China-Cambodia Joint Lab for Water and Environment. At present, OBOR-ETIA has been well developed into a popular and trust-worthy technology and industry cooperation platform that plays a significant role in Belt and Road countries’ water markets.

CAS-TWAS Centre of Excellence for Water and Environment,
Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences,CAS