Public prosecutors indicted 15 people yesterday — five former city government officials and 10 members of Ysolar Group (力暘集團) — after an investigation into a controversial solar energy project in Tainan’s Cigu District (七股)
The case involved former Tainan Economic Development Bureau chief Chen Kai-ling (陳凱凌) and his subordinate officials who were acccused of revising regulations and circumventing procedures to secure land for Ysolar Group projects, in a scheme projected to net NT$9.126 billion over 20 years, the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office said.
Ysolar Group president Ku Sheng-hui (古盛煇) and general manager Hsu Shuo-ting (徐碩廷), two principal figures in the case, were indicted, along with executives of five subsidiary companies of Ysolar Group for their involvement, prosecutors said.
Photo: Wang Chieh, Taipei Times
During the investigation, prosecutors said they carried out six raids to serve summons and gather evidence, and took in 246 people for questioning.
Ku and his five subsidiary companies purchased land in Cigu District in 2020 and 2021, with plans to set up photovoltaic panels for general solar energy, prosecutors said, adding that the companies hoped to receive government subsidies for the project.
Ku allegedly colluded with Chen and his subordinates to circumvent restrictions on “plots of land of under two hectares” and to revise regulations through illicit means to permit the construction of a solar energy project on agricultural land, the indictment filing showed.
Chen and his officials assisted in the falsifying of documents, instructing Ku’s companies to revise the dates on application papers for the planned projects in Cigu, to retroactively be included in a plan by the Ministry of Economic Affairs “to generate 6.5 gigawatts of energy by solar photovoltaic panels by 2020,” the filing said.
Prosecutors alleged that Chen illegitimately favored the Ysolar projects by removing the original application papers, and replacing them with retroactively dated papers, to enable the projects to be included in the ministry’s 2020 target for solar energy production and to help bypass the “plots of land under two hectares” restriction on land-use.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday voiced dissatisfaction with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans- Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), whose latest meeting, concluded earlier the same day, appeared not to address the country’s application. In a statement, MOFA said the CPTPP commission had "once again failed to fairly process Taiwan’s application," attributing the inaction to the bloc’s "succumbing to political pressure," without elaborating. Taiwan submitted its CPTPP application under the name "Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu" on Sept. 22, 2021 -- less than a week after China
ALIGNED THINKING: Taiwan and Japan have a mutual interest in trade, culture and engineering, and can work together for stability, Cho Jung-tai said Taiwan and Japan are two like-minded countries willing to work together to form a “safety barrier” in the Indo-Pacific region, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday said at the opening ceremony of the 35th Taiwan-Japan Modern Engineering and Technology Symposium in Taipei. Taiwan and Japan are close geographically and closer emotionally, he added. Citing the overflowing of a barrier lake in the Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) in September, Cho said the submersible water level sensors given by Japan during the disaster helped Taiwan monitor the lake’s water levels more accurately. Japan also provided a lot of vaccines early in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic,
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) on Monday announced light shows and themed traffic lights to welcome fans of South Korean pop group Twice to the port city. The group is to play Kaohsiung on Saturday as part of its “This Is For” world tour. It would be the group’s first performance in Taiwan since its debut 10 years ago. The all-female group consists of five South Koreans, three Japanese and Tainan’s Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜), the first Taiwan-born and raised member of a South Korean girl group. To promote the group’s arrival, the city has been holding a series of events, including a pop-up
A home-style restaurant opened by a Taiwanese woman in Quezon City in Metro Manila has been featured in the first-ever Michelin Guide honoring exceptional restaurants in the Philippines. The restaurant, Fong Wei Wu (豐味屋), was one of 74 eateries to receive a “Michelin Selected” honor in the guide, while one restaurant received two Michelin stars, eight received one star and 25 were awarded a “Bib Gourmand.” The guide, which was limited to restaurants in Metro Manila and Cebu, was published on Oct. 30. In an interview, Feng Wei Wu’s owner and chef, Linda, said that as a restaurateur in her 60s, receiving an
RSS