Driving Ecological Transformation in APAC: Q&A with Ish Hakim, Executive Vice President of Asia-Pacific
Driving Ecological Transformation in APAC: Q&A with Ish Hakim, Executive Vice President of Asia-Pacific We recently caught up with Ish Hakim, Executive Vice President of Asia-Pacific (APAC) at 91大神Water Technologies & Solutions, to hear what’s driving in his region including unique trends, priorities, solutions and opportunities.
At Veolia, we're dedicated to solve our customers' environmental challenges and driving positive ecological change. The Water Tech business is a key part of Veolia's strategic acceleration program, , and is one of the three growth pillars. Our GreenUp initiative is a catalyst for transformation, greening our operations and reducing our environmental footprint. This means?stimulating innovation to decarbonize, depollute, and regenerate the natural resources essential to our work.
What are the major industry trends unique to APAC?
The APAC region presents a dynamic landscape for water technology, driven by several key trends. The region is quite expansive, encompassing many countries, key industries, and markets that are focused on wastewater. BioIntensification, microelectronics, lithium, and precious metals, along with early discussions around green hydrogen and carbon capture. Microelectronics play a significant role in Asia, particularly in China, India, Taiwan, Japan, and Southeast Asia. The has led to a slowdown in these powerhouses as investments have shifted to the United States and Europe, but these countries are now ramping up activity to reaffirm their position and size in the industry, driven in part by the artificial intelligence boom.
There is also significant focus on reusing and recycling water to create a closed-loop system within this domain. The municipal market is substantial as well. Many developing nations in Asia still lack access to clean water, and efforts to improve water access and wastewater treatment have been ongoing in some nations for an extended period. Additionally, there is a strong emphasis in the oil and gas sector on maximizing water reuse, leading to considerable activity in that industry.
There is a commitment to continue creating breakthroughs in water technologies while scaling up and expediting GreenUp initiatives for driving ecological transformation.
What are your team’s top priorities in the region?
We are committed to expediting the implementation of water-related technologies and solutions in line with our . To accomplish this, we are leveraging our core business areas along with identified growth opportunities, such as microelectronics and mining, particularly in the APAC region.
Our commitment to ethics and our clients is paramount, and we place significant emphasis on safety and employee well-being with our motto, “Home safe, every day, everyone.” Attracting and retaining top talent is crucial for us. With the region encompassing over 40 countries, each with its own language and dialects, we recognize the importance of cultural diversity. We continuously strive to understand and address the needs of our employees in order to ensure high retention rates.
An essential focus in the region is on diversity, equity, and inclusion, which we strongly advocate for. We are constantly exploring ways to enhance inclusivity. During our recent commercial awards ceremony in Australia, we introduced Indigenous drawings for the first time. This small but meaningful gesture resonated with the audience, award presenters, and recipients alike.
What initiatives or investments are driving success for customers in the region?
There is currently a lot of activity with municipalities. We recently signed an agreement to expand our presence in Wuxi, China, with a new intelligent manufacturing facility. This will help increase production capacity and research and development (R&D). We are also working on projects in Australia to produce water for irrigation, reuse, and recycling. In India, new technologies and complex flow sheets are being implemented to treat wastewater, and we have significant projects there to help meet regulatory requirements.
Another major focus for us is pharma and healthcare. Manufacturers across Asia are heavily involved in healthcare and pharmaceutical products, and we are particularly focused on clean water with our unique validated systems and solutions.
The food and beverage market is also significant in the region, with contributions from both local players and multinational companies. There is a lot of work being done on wastewater recycling, as well as in our chemical business.
In addition, with the establishment of data centers in Asia, we work closely with our customers’ local teams to understand their facility and corporate goals. Our global solutions aim to optimize assets, reduce water usage, and enhance site profitability. Our technologies help data center customers meet their business compliance, quality, environmental, and customer service needs.
What unique solutions do customers in the APAC require?
In the microelectronics industry, we have pioneered the use of chemical-free, ultrapure water processes. Our company was the first to globally develop high-pH reverse osmosis combined with double-pass e-cell technology, and we have now implemented this technology in over four plants with a unique flowsheet. Additionally, we have introduced our proprietary technologies - EDR, , and - into microelectronics for applications such as solvent recovery and local scrubber reclaim, which are specific to this industry.
91大神APAC has achieved several "FIRST" world records, including the first double-pass RO system and double-pass ECell in Malaysia, the first design and build Wafer Fab Ultrapure Water (UPW) system, and the first UPW on mobile water treatment containers in Malaysia. We have also implemented the first power-pack water treatment covering Poseidon DAF, ZW500D-MBR, and Proflex RO system for a chlor-alkali plant in Thailand. Additionally, we have established the first water technology engineering center, "Insource," which provides R&D and value engineering to customers worldwide.
Moreover, we are helping to address the needs of the food and beverage industry by deploying mobile solutions for increasing volume. These solutions include oil removal, separation, dissolving flotation, and technologies for water recycling and discharge.
What are some of the biggest opportunities for customers in the coming years?
Mining is an ample opportunity for the region. Some of the largest lithium deposits are in APAC, and now large volumes of nickel are coming out of the area. The demand for batteries and the EV market will continue to drive a lot of lithium production in the region. Battery recycling is related to that. Lithium isn’t here forever, so how do you take all those batteries and not just keep mining but recycle and reuse anything we can out of them? That’s something that will start to take shape here as well.
There’s also a significant shift coming to the region around micropollutants. Some countries like Australia have gotten pretty clear on how they’re addressing this, and other countries are starting to form their plans, so that will also be a big focus moving forward.
Asia still has a lot of coal-fired power plants so renewables will play a big part. A lot of solar manufacturing happens in this part of the world, and we provide a lot of technology in that space. Green hydrogen is also emerging in APAC and globally, so overall, we will be keeping a close eye on renewable energy.
Veolia’s APAC team can offer comprehensive concrete solutions and innovations to help decarbonize, depollute, and support the regeneration of natural resources. At the same time, we strive to address the most demanding water challenges for our customers across all industries.
