Taiwan Probe Holds Up Bayer Plant

We will report the ruling to our headquarters in Germany and the parent company will make a final decision, Chen said.

Taiwan's provincial government yesterday said it had ordered a further environmental review of the controversial plant proposed for Taichung city, necessitating an indefinite delay.

We have decided the investment project will have a major impact on the environment, so it has to go through a second stage of environmental impact review, an official in the provincial government said.

Bayer has said it has contingency plans to build the plant in either Thailand or the United States and said it would make a final decision by the end of 1996, hinting that it would not tolerate a lengthy regulatory delay in Taiwan.

 

Citizens in the central city of Taichung have gathered 15,000 signatures in a petition drive and spoken out against the project, saying they did not want a major chemical plant in their neighbourhood.

Bayer has countered that the proposed plant includes modern anti-pollution safeguards that exceed those in any plant it has built anywhere in the world.

The plant is designed to produce TDI, a mid-stream chemical material for producing synthetic leather, with output primarily for export.

Bayer and Taiwan's central government, which strongly backs the project, had both hoped a second review was unnecessary.

Under the original plan, the first of three construction phases would start this month a schedule almost certainly made impossible by Monday's ruling. The provincial official said the review would delay the project but would not comment on local media reports that a second-stage review could take up to a year.

A second-stage environmental review includes numerous public hearings to elicit the views of local residents. The first had involved discussion among plant designers, industrial and environmental experts and government officials.

Bayer has countered that the proposed plant includes modern anti-pollution safeguards that exceed those in any plant it has built anywhere in the world.

Taipei has been keen to lure the huge investment as part of its drive to become an industrial and commercial hub for multinational companies operating in the Asia-Pacific region.

The central government agreed in August to lease Bayer 72 hectares of state land at low rent for 50 years.

Bayer officials have said they were confident that citizens could be persuaded to accept the project once hearing of its merits and environmental safeguards.

Completion of the first T$11.5 billion stage was to have been completed in late 1998, with a second and third stage wrapping up in 2004.