Business leaders called for stability yesterday as the Legislative Yuan and Executive Yuan continued with their tit-for-tat tussle over the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant (
"Whether we build the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant is not important any more," said Day Sheng-tong, (
"What we care about is that all this uncertainty is now killing the economy," he added.
Yesterday the legislature passed a resolution demanding that the Cabinet resume building the plant. The political dispute surrounding the project has dogged the country's financial markets over the past few months.
Lin Kung-chung (林坤鐘), chairman of the Chinese National Federation of Industries (全國工業總會), said that whether or not the nuclear power plant is built is irrelevant as long as the government maintains an adequate supply of power and keeps electricity prices unchanged.
Business people "care about stability and the economy over anything else," he said yesterday.
But Tseng Fan-cheng (曾繁城), president of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), was more blunt in his opinion.
He called for the Executive Yuan to respect the legislature's decision and continue building the plant.
"We hope the government will respect the legislature's decision," he told the Central News Agency, adding that only by so doing will the government be able to "calm the public sentiment."
Economists however believe that the ruling DPP government's decision to halt the building of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant may continue to hurt investment sentiment in Taiwan.
"The decision is too political," said Wang Heh-song (
Meanwhile, the domestic stock market shrugged off the concerns of a looming political crisis yesterday. The TAIEX climbed 2.48 percent to 5,936.20 on strong foreign buying in electronic stocks.
"If the government goes ahead with the project, the stock market should go up," Wang said.
Near the end of the KMT's administration, the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant proposal was ram-med through the Legislative Yuan amid protests from opposition lawmakers and the general public. Some believe that consturction companies that where likely to realize large financial gains from the power plant project, exerted pressure on KMT lawmakers to approve the project before the presidential election last March.
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