Suez Environnement, a world leading water and waste service company, is to build a new research and development center in Chongqing in an aim to better support the city in environmental protection services.

The France-based company along with its subsidiary Sino French Water, and its strategic partner Chongqing Water Group, have signed a contract On Friday afternoon to establish the very first Environmental Excellence R&D center in the fastest growing municipal government in southwest China.

The R&D center, which will start with 20 researchers, will focus on innovation in Chongqing’s water, sewage and waste management services.

It will boost service quality and create technical solutions to meet environment protection goals as well as support Chongqing’s rapid urbanization and the development of local industry, according to the company.

“Chongqing is one of the most populous cities in China, in which water demands has been increasing dramatically every year due to the rapid urbanization,” said Jean-Louis Chaussade, chief executive officer of the group.

“With a new R&D center, we can better help the city reach its goals in economic development and environmental protection,” he said.

November marks the 10th anniversary Suez Environnement entering the Chongqing market, which contributes a sizeable proportion of the company’s around 1 billion euro revenue in China in 2011.

The Chongqing center is the company’s first R&D center in China dedicated to full-range water and waste innovative solutions.

Though at the starting point, the new R&D center will mainly provide services towards the requests and needs of Chongqing, Chaussade said as the center develops, it may also provide solutions for other cities in China.

“With the growth of economy, water management is going to be a key issue in China,” Chaussade said.

China, which presents 21 percent of the world’s population, has only 7 percent of water resource. The water shortage in China is likely to worsen due to the growing population in big cities, Chaussade said.

“We see huge potential in China’s water management sector. Every year we have two to three new joint ventures formed in China,” he said.