Japanese businessman Katsutoshi Yoshinaga is discussing cooperation potential with a manager from a local environment protection company. Besides him is a big fish tank with golden fish swimming briskly inside.

This, however, is no ordinary fish tank, but a model to tackle the lake pollution. The ozonizer sends bubbles with ozone to the lakebed, which can speed up the oxidization and decomposition of the filthy mud, contain the growth of the microorganism, and help with the flow and self-purification of the water.

Yoshinaga is president of Marine Giken Co. Ltd. Being a fisherman for decades and uneasy with the deteriorating water quality of the fishing ground, he set up the company in 1987 with the goal to "restore the water to its natural condition without using chemicals. " He came to the exhibition at the 13th World Lake Conference that opened Monday in Wuhan, for the enormous business opportunities brought by China's determination to tackle the lake contamination.

"We got our product patent in China six years ago. Our chance came when the Chinese government is determined to deal with the lake pollution," he said.

Chinese senior officials on Monday called for enhanced measures to curb lake pollution and facilitate lake rehabilitation at the conference.

Lakes, a key element in sustaining ecological balance, remained fragile in the face of rapid industrial growth and increasing human activities, which led to serious contamination and shrinkage that in turn threatened people's living environment, said Chen Zhili, vice chairwoman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature.

Zhou Shengxian, China's minister of environmental protection, described China's water environment as being still "serious", calling for more efforts to improve ecological functions of water environment.

The 1st China International Lake Management and Technology and Equipment Exhibition is an important part of the conference, which has attracted more than 1,000 government officials and experts from over 40 countries. Many environment enterprises home and abroad took advantage of the conference to promote their products and reputation.

The Hach Company based in the United States manufactures and distributes analytical instruments and reagents used to test the quality of water and other aqueous solutions. It has set up branches in more than 10 Chinese cities since it launched the first office in the capital city of Beijing.

"The Chinese market has become one of the most important markets for Hach. Local environment departments and large chemical plants from Hubei and Yunan Provinces have held talks with us in the past two days," said Mei Dong, a manager from Hach's Beijing office.

Sun Yongjian, who got his doctorate degree of material science in the U.S., set up the Nanjing Frontier Environmental Techology Co., Ltd. in March in east China's Jiangsu Province. He plans to make the full use of this conference to open up the market for his solar powered eco-restoration system, which can contain the algae and get rid of the organic substances.

"Our product is cost effective and fits for the lake clean-up. A Japanese company has shown interest in our technology," Sun said.

Sun thought highly of the Chinese environment protection market and hoped the government could be more transparent in the procurement since most of the environment protection programs are initiated by the authorities.

"The government should support private environment-friendly companies. Let the anti-pollution effect decide which one could survive," he said.