The controversial Kuokuang Petrochemical project — the nation’s eight naphtha cracking plant — could be the last petrochemical factory in Taiwan, Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said yesterday.
At a press conference to mark the first anniversary of his inauguration, Wu said there would be no ninth naphtha cracking plant or more petrochemical plants after the eighth is built in Changhua County.
The government was recently criticized after the Ministry of Economic Affairs used NT$5 million (US$156,000) in public funds to run newspaper ads in support of the Kuokuang Petrochemical project, which had aroused strong opposition amid environmental and health concerns.
PHOTO: CNA
With Wu’s support, the ministry said the petrochemical industry was one of the nation’s core industries. The premier, however, also said the government’s policy was to maintain a certain level of self-sufficiency in petrochemical production and “not to develop the industry without limit.”
In view of the load-bearing capability of the country, regardless of whether the petrochemical project passes the environmental impact assessment or not, the government will not come up with plans to build a ninth naphtha cracking plant, Wu said.
He said, however, that his views on the matter were not fixed and that he would respect any decision from environmental impact assessment officials.
Using the steel industry as an example, Wu said Formosa Plastics Group and E United Group were both forced to establish steel plants abroad as steel manufacturing was not in line with the government’s development policy.
On a separate subject, Wu said he did not oppose imposing new taxes on rich people as a measure to narrow the widening gap between rich and poor, as long as the initiative was supported by the legislature and public consensus was reached.
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