If you only look superficially on water/wastewater treatment equipment industry as a whole and apply it on a rich or developing market, you could be quite right. However, we should also look at why Coca Cola started to sell into China in the late 1990s when China's economy then, wasn't as rosy.
Back on water. We have to distinguish the playing field here. Water treatment and wastewater treatment. The rich market you have indicated is also flushed with rich competition on water treatment, in particular desalination. Competition is keen there and the margin for EPCs are thin. Any error in cost overrun or delays will make a project unprofitable. Good to look at, but leaves you hungry as there is not much left on the plate.
However, our play area in this is on the decentralized water treatment and it is a newer movement that is now gaining traction. 1 Nirobox sale yields about 8-10 Aspiral sale. So you will be quite right there if rich Middle Countries are buying more and more of our Niroboxes.
Another thing to note here is technology. Desalination generally depends on the membrane and the tech on membrane keeps improving. The higher margin goes to the most energy efficient membrane makers and that changes with improvement of each module. As for us, we will use any membrane for desal as suited, and we play on the efficiency, footprint and savings on piping network with our decentralized modules here.
As for the excitement of Cambodia. It is wastewater treatment. This area has to be much more cost effective to the consumers. Imagine, you would pay $2 for a bottled water because you need a drink. But if the toilets charges you $1 or 50c for you to pee, you would say "hang on!" and hold it till you go to the nearest tree. This is a simple illustration between the difference in business models and players here. And MABR is gaining traction as the most efficient tech for this purpose at lower cost.
Cambodia will be the showcase of our MABR tech for the coming East Asia Sea Summit on 1-2 December 2021 at... Sihanoukville. Imagine a wastewater treatment plant smack right next to a hotel, a busy beach, odourless and low noise level? Running at a much lower running cost and total cost, and achieving a water discharge standard much higher than that of USA and some European countries?
As for business and money matter, Sihanoukville is modelled after Shenzhen of the late 80s. A special economic zone for rapid development for the next few decades. An area without as much historical and cultural baggage as Phnom Penh or Siem Reap where new infrastructures in Sihanoukville are less prohibitive. Just like Shenzhen in the late 80s or the 4 Asian Dragons in the late 60s and the 4 Asian Tigers in the late 70s, there will be new builds and each newbuild will need our Aspiral or SUBRE as decree by the minister.
Lets see how other developing nations will follow.
To summarise, I would celebrate.
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