Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (
Environmentalists, however, said that more effective strategies could have been carried out, including releasing updated information about discovered illegal waste dumps.
EPA officials said that the efficiency of conducting assessments had increased and recently revised regulations would further rule out so-called barriers to investment for industry.
EPA head Hau Lung-bin (
Hau wanted to offer explanation in response to criticism from President Chen Shui-bian (
Chen criticized the assessment committees of the Taoyuan County government for being too picky with the EIA for an application from Quanta Display (廣輝電子), owned by Taiwan's No. 1 laptop computer maker, Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦).
Chen said last week he'd get on his hands and knees to beg if it meant a speedier review for local companies seeking approval for their industrial development plans.
Hau said yesterday that recently revised EIA regulations proposed allowing firms to establish factory sites in industrial complexes, science-based industrial parks and export processing zones without conducting the assessment in advance, as long as projected pollutant emissions remain under the acceptable limit set by the EPA.
Premier Chang said yesterday that the EPA had to play a key role in balancing ecological preservation and economic development to ensure sustainable development.
In addition, Chang praised the agency for solving a variety of controversial issues step by step, including dealing with compensation for pig farmers along five major rivers, wiping out refinery plants along the polluted Erjen River (
"The Cabinet would fully support plans pertaining to such important issues," Chang said.
Chang said that, in the future, several agencies would manage industrial waste together. The EPA will be in charge of non-hazardous industrial waste management, while the Ministry of Economic Affairs will be responsible for handling hazardous industrial waste. The National Science Council will be the only supervisor for waste produced by firms in science-based industrial parks.
"By the end of 2003, when the project becomes effective, carrying out cross-agency cooperation to prevent illegal waste dumping will be realized," Chang said.
In May, the Cabinet approved a project proposed by the EPA to establish final depositories for industrial waste. The agency plans to build a 10-hectare dump for non-hazardous industrial waste at a site owned by Taiwan Sugar Corp in Changhua County by April next year.
"By the end of next year, we will have at least 60 hectares for use as final depositories for industrial waste," Hau said, adding that another site in Tainan County was still being discussed with the local government.
Environmentalists, however, said setting the time frame for the establishment of final depositories for industrial waste was one of the EPA's duties and felt other strategies on managing industrial waste could have been explored.
"For example, releasing updated information about discovered illegal waste dumps and establishing warning signs beside all such dumps," said Li Ken-cheng (李根政), convener of an ecological education center committee under the National Teachers' Association (全國教師會).
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2