Yunlin County, May 30 (CNA) President Chen Shui-bian lauded Friday the Formosa Plastics Group's (FPG's) high efficiency and its efforts to keep its roots in Taiwan.
Addressing a ceremony in Mailiao, Yunlin County, to mark the ground-breaking of the fourth-phase expansion of the Sixth Naphtha Cracking Plant, Chen said that FPG's commitment to completing the expansion project in just two years has once again underlined the conglomerate's "astonishingly high" operational efficiency.
Completing the NT$124.6 billion (US$3.61 billion) expansion project in such a short period of time will also allow FPG to live up to the fame enjoyed by the group's founder, Wang Yung-ching, known locally as the "Business God of Taiwan," Chen said.
The fourth-phase expansion project -- when completed, the combined production of the Sixth Naphtha Cracker, mainly ethylene and propylene, will be worth NT$235.1 billion annually, which will help push Taiwan's gross domestic product up by 2.3 percent -- is also serving as a concrete support for the government's policy of seeking to have Taiwan industries "plough deeply on the island and keep their roots at home," Chen said.
The president offered his appreciation and respect on behalf of the government and the people of Taiwan to FPG for its long-term support and contributions to the country.
He noted that FPG has invested more than NT$540 billion over the past decade in the first three phases of development of the Sixth Naphtha Cracker, which as a whole has an output of petrochemical products exceeding NT$610 billion and has spurred production in other related industries and services worth some NT$1 trillion.
Noting that the Sixth Naphtha Cracker and its related industries and services have so far created some 750,000 jobs, Chen described FPG as an index company of Taiwan's industrial development and said it deserves the title of "a pillar of rock in a turbulent stream."
Meanwhile, the president also praised Premier Yu Shyi-kun and his executive team for having "scored brilliantly" in the government's efforts to rev up the domestic economy. He said Yu's team has demonstrated high efficiency in removing various investment barriers in a very short space of time to allow major investment projects to be put into implementation islandwide.
For example, Chen said, he officiated at a ground-breaking ceremony last May at a defunct military base located next to the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park for an expansion of Taiwan's "Silicon Valley." In less than six months, with efforts from all the agencies concerned, the military complex has been successfully rezoned as part of the industrial park. To date, 12 high technology companies have signed contracts with the government to establish manufacturing operations in the area, he continued.
Citing another military base in Tucheng, Taipei County, as another example, Chen said the Executive Yuan has been able to turn a former military transportation school into an industrial zone and has allowed the Hong Hai Group to relocate its manufacturing operations to the base in just three months. This, he said, shows unprecedentedly high efficiency on the part of the government.