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Chen praises Formosa Plastics

Formosa naphtha cracker * Ethylene and propylene worth NT$235.1 billion produced annually at the company's Sixth Naphtha Cracker supports Taiwan's GDP by 2.3 percent. * Formosa has invested NT$540 billion in three phases of the plant in the last 10 years. * The facility has created about 750,000 jobs.

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) lauded yesterday the Formosa Plastics Group's high efficiency and its efforts to keep its roots in Taiwan.

Addressing a ceremony in Mailiao, Yunlin County, to mark the ground-breaking of the fourth-phase expansion of the Sixth Naphtha Cracker, Chen said that Formosa's commitment to completing the expansion project in just two years has once again underlined the conglomerate's "astonishingly high" operational efficiency.

Completing the NT$124.6 billion (US$3.61 billion) expansion project in such a short period of time will also allow Formosa to live up to the fame enjoyed by the group's founder, Wang Yung-ching (王永慶)," Chen said.

The fourth-phase expansion project is also serving as a concrete support for the government's policy of seeking to have industries "plough deeply and keep their roots at home, Chen said.

When it is completed, the combined production of the Sixth Naphtha Cracker, which produces mainly ethylene and propylene, will be worth NT$235.1 billion annually and will help push Taiwan's GDP up by 2.3 percent, he said.

He offered his appreciation and respect on behalf of the government and the people to Formosa for its long-term support and contributions to the country.

He noted that Formosa has invested more than NT$540 billion over the past decade in the first three phases of development of the Sixth Naphtha Cracker, which as a whole has an output of petrochemical products exceeding NT$610 billion and has spurred up- and downstream production and services worth some NT$1 trillion.

Noting that the Sixth Naphtha Cracker and its related industries and services have so far created some 750,000 jobs, Chen described Formosa as an index company of the nation's industrial development and said it deserves the title of "a pillar of rock in a turbulent stream."

Meanwhile, Chen also praised Premier Yu Shyi-kun and his executive team for having "scored brilliantly" in the government's efforts to rev up the domestic economy. He said Yu's team has demonstrated high efficiency in removing various investment barriers in a very short space of time to allow major investment projects to be implemented nationwide.

For example, Chen said, he officiated at a ground-breaking ceremony last May at a defunct military base next to the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park for an expansion of the nation's "Silicon Valley." In less than six months, the complex has been successfully rezoned as part of the industrial park.

To date, 12 high-technology companies have signed contracts with the government to establish manufacturing operations in the area, he said.

Citing another military base in Tucheng, Taipei County, Chen said the Executive Yuan has been able to turn a former military transportation school into an industrial zone and has allowed the Hong Hai Group to relocate its manufacturing operations to the base in just three months. This, he said, shows unprecedentedly high efficiency on the part of the government.

For his part, Wang Yung-ching, offered his gratitude to the government for its assistance in helping the conglomerate realize its ambitious plans.
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