Even before it was confirmed that Tung Ting had won the tender, however, the economics ministry had approved the company's
application to have land designated for an industrial area and port. Tung Ting had thus obtained a location for the port -- Kuantang in Taoyuan -- on the coast right next to the site for the Tatan plant. Both the land and the rights to develop it had been given unconditionally to Tung Ting.
Financial officials who participated in the approval of the Tung Ting investment project but asked not to be named said the reason the Kuantang port was approved was that Tung Ting met the requirements of national natural gas policy. The officials said the Tatan plant tender hadn't even been issued, so how could Tung Ting meet policy requirements before receiving the tender documents? In addition, the original reason for approving the construction of the port doesn't exist anymore.
The officials said that this was all the result of official pressure at the time of the approval.
Having been attacked for enjoying "protection from above," Tung Ting filed an application with the Industrial Development Bureau in 1995 to build a port.
But not until 1999 did the bureau designate Kuantang as an industrial park. In July 2000, shortly after Chen Shui-bian took office, a CEPD committee meeting approved the proposal to build an industrial port in the Kuantang industrial park. Construction work commenced in May 2002.
Because of the government's "protection," the tender for Tai-power's Tatan LNG power plant aroused concern in various countries. ExxonMobil, TotalFinaElf, British Petroleum and Shell have all gone through their respective countries' representatives in Taipei to lodge complaints with the Cabinet and the Presidential Office over the handling of the tender.
China Petroleum was eventually allowed to participate in the bidding. Chen Shui-bian's administration also ordered a review of the qualifications of the bidders in the Tatan project.
Last year, Tung Ting's bid for the 25-year, NT$395 billion (US$11.9 billion) contract to supply gas to Taipower was defeated and construction on the project was halted.
Translated by Jackie Lin, Eddy Chang and Perry Svensson
RSS