Vietnam has told owners of a Taiwanese-built steel plant to dig up a controversial waste pipe, even after it found no evidence tying its discharge to mass fish deaths that have triggered health fears and public anger.
Huge numbers of dead fish have appeared at farms and on beaches in central Vietnam since April 6, affecting 200km of coastline, with no known cause of what the government is calling one of its worst-ever environmental disasters.
Vietnamese Minister of the Environment Tran Hong Ha declared illegal the waste pipe operated by Hung Nghiep Formosa Ha Tinh Corp, a unit of Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), after officials examined water samples around the site.
Photo: AFP
“We propose to have measures in place to monitor this system after it is elevated, for easy access and surveillance,” Ha told Formosa officials and reporters on Thursday.
Ha’s comments suggest the government still harbors doubts, despite tests that show Formosa, a major investor leading the US$10.6 billion steel project, was not behind the pollution.
Public outrage was also evident on social media, the only real channel through which Vietnamese get to vent in a country tightly controlled by the Vietnamese Communist Party.
In a statement yesterday, Ha said the government lacked experience in dealing with disasters and had been slow to act.
He called it a “very huge and serious environment disaster.”
The government has banned the sale and distribution of non-living aquatic products in four affected provinces.
Its probe said either toxic discharge caused by humans or “red tide,” when algae blooming at an abnormal rate produce toxins, may have killed the fish.
Facebook, which is used by about 30 million Vietnamese, is seeing an outpouring of anger directed at Formosa and criticism of the government’s sluggish response.
Many used the hashtag #toichonca, which means: “I choose fish.”
The hashtag emerged after a Taiwanese official at Formosa Ha Tinh said Vietnam had to choose between “catching fish and shrimp and building a modern steel industry.”
He later apologized.
In a government letter issued yesterday, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said authorities had yet to find the cause, and acknowledged public concerns.
Vietnam’s seafood exports, which totaled US$6.6 billion last year, will not be hurt, the industry’s body said. Top buyers are the US, Europe and Japan.
A petition on the White House Web site is urging US President Barack Obama to raise the issue with Vietnam’s leaders when he visits next month.
After several years flying high as Asia’s best Nvidia Corp proxy, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is increasingly vying with other artificial intelligence (AI) stocks for investor attention. Stock traders are chasing a wider array of beneficiaries as mainstream usage of AI creates demand for hardware beyond the most-advanced chips TSMC makes for Nvidia. Subthemes from the deepening memory crunch to advances in robotics are also luring bids. At the same time, investment caps on single stocks are pushing funds to diversify, while retail investors long familiar with TSMC through its US depositary receipts are being offered a broader set of
UNDER MICROSCOPE: Taiwan detained three people who allegedly conspired to buy servers in Taiwan and export them using fraudulent documentation, prosecutors said Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday urged Super Micro Computer Inc to tighten up on compliance after Taiwan detained three people this week for allegedly making fraudulent declarations about artificial intelligence (AI) servers made by its US partner. The development marked the nation’s first crackdown on semiconductor smuggling, which grew after the US slapped restrictions on exports of high-end chips such as Nvidia AI accelerators to China. Nvidia is “rigorous” in explaining regulations to all of its partners, Huang told reporters after arriving in Taipei. “Ultimately Super Micro has to run their own company,” he said in response to
TECH RELIANCE: Growth is increasingly reflecting an unequal K-shaped distribution, where technology sectors outperform and other industries struggle, an expert said Standard Chartered Bank has significantly raised its forecast for Taiwan’s economic growth to 9.5 percent this year, up from 7.6 percent previously, citing surging artificial intelligence (AI) demand driving exports, semiconductor production and investment. The upgrade reflects a sustained AI supercycle that continues to fuel demand for advanced chips and technology infrastructure, which form the backbone of Taiwan’s exports, the bank said in a report this week. “We raise our 2026 growth forecast to reflect a much stronger-than-expected first-quarter GDP figure,” Standard Chartered senior economist for greater China and Asia Tommy Wu (胡東安) said in the report. Driven largely by a 35.3 percent
Two of Taiwan’s international carriers, Starlux Airlines Co (星宇航空) and EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空), have retained the five-star airline rating awarded by international airline review organization Skytrax. Starlux was awarded the distinction for a second consecutive year, while EVA Air received it for the 11th straight year, Skytrax said in statements released yesterday and on Thursday last week, respectively. The five-star rating is considered one of the airline industry's highest honors and is awarded following professional audits of airline product and frontline service standards, Skytrax said. The ratings are based on in-depth assessments using unified global quality standards rather than customer review scores
RSS