Hundreds of Yunlin County residents on Thursday rallied in front of the Industrial Development Bureau’s headquarters in Taipei to demand the rezoning of a 1,466-hectare industrial zone in the county, which has not been used for industrial purposes and has remained underdeveloped since 1991.
Headed by an aquaculture association based in Yunlin’s Taisi Township (台西), the protesters, most of whom are oyster farmers, called for infrastructure development and demanded that the bureau rezone industrial areas in Taisi and in the county’s coastal areas to boost the aquaculture industry.
The government in 1991 designated more than 800 hectares in Taisi as part of the county’s offshore industrial zone, but much of the area has since remained idle, as most development projects, including a Kuokuang Petrochemical Technology Co complex, were blocked due to local opposition.
Formosa Plastics Group’s naphtha cracker in Yunlin’s Mailiao Township (麥寮) was one of the few developments in the area.
Protester Lin Wen-hsin (林文新) said the government promised to develop the township 25 years ago, but nothing has been done so far except for a few projects that either emit significant amounts of pollution or were trashed.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) said aquaculture has been the dominant industry in Taisi, but the township is officially designated as an industrial zone, leaving it unable to request funding for farming infrastructure from the Fisheries Agency, leading to the slow development of roads and drainage and irrigation systems in the area.
Former Yunlin County commissioner Su Chih-fen (蘇治芬) said Taisi could be rezoned into a “green energy and aquaculture area” to develop fish farming and the solar industry.
Lee said that the Council of Agriculture has designated more than 1,000 hectares of farmland for the construction of solar power facilities, calling on the bureau and the Ministry of Economic Affairs to follow suit.
Bureau Director Wu Ming-ji (吳明機) said that the ministry would submit a development plan for underutilized coastal industrial zones within two months after interministerial negotiations, adding that the bureau would facilitate cooperation between the council and the Bureau of Energy to promote aquaculture and the solar industry in Yunlin.
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