TAIPEI: Taiwan's government may lift a ban on setting up petrochemical refining activities in China, the government said on Friday, as the island's president withdrew his support for a controversial local refinery project.
The economics minister said Taiwan will evaluate the possibility of allowing companies to set up naphtha cracking operations in China, though he did not elaborate.
Taiwan currently bans petrochemical firms from setting up upstream activities in political rival China, though downstream manufacturing of products such as plastics is allowed.
Earlier, President Ma Ying-jeou said he would not support construction of the $24 billion Kuokuang refinery and petrochemical project in the central Taiwan county of Changhua, leaving its future unclear.
The project has been dogged by often violent protests in recent months from environmental groups and residents concerned over protecting wetlands in the area.
"As soon as the case of Kuokuang becomes clear, we will immediately start an appraisal.
Now that the time is ripe, we will start considering this idea (of refining operations in China) very soon," Economics Minister Shih Yen-shiang told reporters.
The Kuokuang project has presented Ma with a tough choice between burnishing his environmental credentials or promoting growth and jobs as presidential elections loom in January.
He did not say whether he wanted the project scrapped, built somewhere else in Taiwan or built overseas, instead instructing the company to relay his comments to shareholders.
Malaysia and Indonesia and other south-east Asian countries have previously expressed interest in hosting the project should Taiwan reject it.
The project, a joint investment by state-owned CPC Corp and private firms, was scaled back in July to $24 billion from $36 billion proposed originally.
It was estimated it would generate NT$57 billion in tax revenues and create up to 18,000 jobs.
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