Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) Minister Stephen Shen (沈世宏) yesterday attended a symposium held by the Taiwan-based Chinese National Federation of Industries (CNFI) in Taipei, to respond to a set of environmental proposals. The majority of the proposals focused on improving air quality and dealing with noise pollution.
“The federation’s annual white paper proposed 252 suggestions to the government this year, which is probably the highest number of proposals in recent years,” CNFI chairman Rock Hsu (許勝雄) said.
“It shows that within the investment and business environment in Taiwan, there is still much room for improvement, which could be reached through better cooperation between academics, the government and the business sector,” he said. “We hope the suggestions will help the government with its policy planning and policy enforcement and will contribute to substantially improving Taiwan’s competitive strength.”
Responding to the proposals, Department of Air Quality Protection and Noise Control director-general Hsieh Yein-rui (謝燕儒) said that while some suggestions were made on amending related regulations, many issues involved regulation standards that the administration is still working on.
“Still other proposals refer to individual cases,” he added.
“However, the department guarantees it will further clarify and discuss the issues with the proposing industries face-to-face to find appropriate solutions in the future,” Hsieh said.
The proposals included suggestions such as allowing companies to detect volatile organic compounds in components by themselves and relaxing regulations on air-quality control in mining areas.
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