Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/07/30
By: Fan Ching-yi and Frances Huang
Hanoi, July 30 (CNA) A ranking official from Vietnam said Saturday that Taiwan-based
CNA file photo
conglomerate Formosa Plastics Group (FPG, 台塑集團) has paid half of the compensation it had pledged for alleged pollution caused by a steel mill run by the Taiwanese business group in central Vietnam.
Tran Hong Ha, Vietnam’s natural resources and environment minister, said in a televised meeting held by the country’s parliament, that FPG paid US$250 million in compensation on July 28 for the damage inflicted by the pollution, and the other half of the compensation — US$250 million — is expected to be paid on Aug. 28.
The Vietnamese minister said that the government has placed the US$250 million worth of compensation from FPG in a single bank account and will distribute the funds to the victims of the pollution case and also use the funds to clean the toxic waste discharged by the FPG’s steel complex, Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corp., located in the Vung Ang Economic Zone in Ha Tinh Province, central Vietnam. [FULL STORY]