Kaohsiung County Commissioner Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興) on Friday accused “certain political figures” of being anti-business, saying that he would take it upon himself to solicit businesses to invest in the south.
Yang was apparently referring to his Yunlin counterpart Su Chih-fen (蘇治芬) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), who he suggested had “set a bad example” by leading protests against the Formosa Plastics Group (FPG) and asking for a huge amount of compensation in the wake of two fires at its petrochemical complex in Mailiao Township (麥寮), Yunlin County, last month.
“Political figures and parties cannot act so strongly against businesses or they will drive them away,” said Yang, who earlier this month withdrew from the DPP and declared an independent bid for the Greater Kaohsiung mayoral post.
Yang said a local government head should play the role of “coordinator,” adding that when several industrial incidents took place in his county, he dealt with them all the while keeping “industrial safety, environmental protection, business survival and public interests” in mind.
He urged the public not to turn against businesses when attaching importance to environmental protection.
He said Kaohsiung’s economic growth has been slow over the past decade and that if it could develop its economy, many Kaohsiung residents wouldn’t have to leave their hometown to make a living.
He lauded Hon Hai Group, saying that a fund under the group opened an organic farm to help flood victims in the wake of Typhoon Morakot in August last year.
He expressed hope that Hon Hai would set up operations and cloud computing centers in Kaohsiung and said he would continue to solicit Hon Hai’s investment in Greater Kaohsiung.
The DPP said it could not agree with Yang’s remarks and dismissed them as a “campaign gambit.”
“If the same incidents took place at FPG’s plant in Renwu Township (仁武), Kaohsiung County, Yang would not have made such a remark,” DPP spokesman Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) said.
Lin said that for Yunlin residents, the two fires last month are a big issue and that the fears among them “can’t be easily understood by outsiders.”
Su said that residents of Yunlin and Kaohsiung counties have “different values and demands” of their leaders, adding that if Kaohsiung County residents asked Yang to do certain things, Yang would also have to comply.
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