The Kaohsiung City Government passed a draft of the self-government ordinance on the management of Kaohsiung’s existing industrial pipelines (高雄市既有工業管線管理自治條例) on Tuesday that requires companies laying pipelines in Kaohsiung to locate their headquarters there — sparking questions over its constitutionality.
“The ordinance does not compel corporations with petrochemical pipelines to station their headquarters in Kaohsiung, as they are free to choose whether to keep their pipelines, which are to be approved and managed by the local government, in Kaohsiung. However, if the pipelines are to stay in Kaohsiung, the corporations will have to have their headquarters in Kaohsiung,” Kaohsiung Legal Affairs Bureau Director Hsu Nai-dan (許乃丹) said at a press conference when addressing the issue of constitutionality.
Hsu added that the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) has been saying that there is a lack of proper regulation on petrochemical pipelines and that it aims to amend the law to make the pipelines “extensions of factories’ equipment.”
Photo: Huang Chih-yuan, Taipei Times
“The amendment would grant these illegal pipelines legality on the spot, but it has no regard for residents’ safety. The government is — in no violation of the Constitution — setting up regulations regulating these illegally buried pipelines to put public safety first, while there are still misgivings about the central government’s proposed amendments,” Hsu said.
The city government passed the draft ordinance in the wake of gas pipeline explosions that left 32 dead and hundreds injured in Kaohsiung last year.
City officials defended the regulations as necessary for Kaohsiung residents’ safety.
Kaohsiung Economic Development Bureau Director Tseng Wen-sheng (曾文生) said that while the public pipelines for water, gas and electricity are legally registered, there are 89 industrial pipelines in Kaohsiung that have been off the legal grid for years.
He went on to say that, during the explosions, one corporation’s various departments had problems communicating with each other, with devastating effect to the response.
“With the headquarters relocated to Kaohsiung, they could be close to the sites and streamline the communication,” Tseng said.
“The existing laws regulate only road-digging and its approval, but are insufficient when it comes to the management of the pipelines after they are buried,” Kaohsiung Deputy Secretary-General Chen Hung-yi (陳鴻益) said. “The new ordinance is to regulate the management and the use of the industrial pipelines, and only the pipelines, as the transport and use of tank trucks will not be affected.”
At a separate press conference in Taipei, the ministry yesterday said it is a petrochemical company’s responsibility to maintain the safety of its petrochemical pipelines, adding that there is no direct relation between the location of a company’s headquarters and its responsibilities.
“Kaohsiung’s regulations may affect industries’ choices to set up headquarters in Taiwan and consequently influence companies’ willingness to invest in the nation,” Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津) told reporters, adding that it may violate constitutional principles regarding an individual’s property rights and their right to run a business.
State-run oil refiner CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said the company had already established an office in southern Taiwan after the deadly gas explosions, adding that it plans to set up a center in southern Taiwan this year to ensure the safety of its petrochemical pipelines.
CPC said it respected the Kaohsiung City Government’s decision and that it would carefully evaluate the possibility of moving its headquarters to Kaohsiung.
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
The government is considering polices to increase rental subsidies for people living in social housing who get married and have children, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. During an interview with the Plain Law Movement (法律白話文) podcast, Cho said that housing prices cannot be brought down overnight without affecting banks and mortgages. Therefore, the government is focusing on providing more aid for young people by taking 3 to 5 percent of urban renewal projects and zone expropriations and using that land for social housing, he said. Single people living in social housing who get married and become parents could obtain 50 percent more
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
RSS