FRONT-PAGE SPREADS:The firm said it would reduce its Sincheng Township activities to about 250 hectares and be willing to undergo an environmental assessment
Taipei Times
Date: Jun 16, 2017
By: Kuo Chia-erh / Staff reporter
Amid a growing backlash against Asia Cement Corp’s (亞泥) business interests in Taiwan, the company
Far Eastern Group chairman Douglas Hsu, right, speaks at a shareholders’ meeting in Taipei yesterday. Photo: Lee Ching-hui, Taipei Times
yesterday took out front-page advertisements in several Chinese-language newspapers to announce that it would reduce its mining operations in Hualien County by 40 percent.
The company said it would restrict its mining operations in Sincheng Township (新城) to about 250 hectares, 150 hectares less than the 400 hectares that the government has approved.
It said it would also agree to conduct an environmental impact assessment on its mining operations if necessary, once a proposed revision of the Mining Act (礦業法) passes the legislature.
The announcement came after Premier Lin Chuan (林全) on Wednesday said that the government would, in a week, review the renewal of the firm’s mining rights.
There has been widespread criticism of the company’s mining activities at the Sincheng site in the wake of the death of award-winning documentary filmmaker Chi Po-lin (齊柏林) on Saturday last week in a helicopter crash. [FULL STORY]
