An alliance focusing on the ecology sector began operations on Tuesday in Hohhot, capital of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, home of the country’s biggest grasslands. This alliance, Technology Innovation in Grasslands Ecology Restoration, includes 28 enterprises involved in grassland ecology. It also includes academic institutions, universities, and social organizations.

It will combine efforts in different sectors to share resources, claimed Wang Zhaoming, the initiator of the alliance. Wang is also the board chairman of Hohhot-based Monsod Drought-Resistance, one of the country’s biggest listed companies on gardening and grassland restoration.

The company has established a gene bank with BGI, China’s leading genome sequencing center to better develop grass varieties suitable to the arid environment of Inner Mongolia.

“Each one in the alliance will do and only do what they are good at,” Wang explained. “We don’t want too much business crossover within individual companies, but the result can be win-win if we share the resources and save costs.”

Sectors for cooperation will include a plantation for herbal medicines, processing of high-quality livestock produce, and application of new energy.