The ROC government is devising innovative strategies aimed at adding value to Taiwan’s petrochemical industry in the face of stiff global competition, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs June 16.
“Using R&D to create value-added products is the best way forward for this opportunity-laden sector,” MOEA Minister Shih Yen-shiang said.
The MOEA began devising alternative development plans for the Taiwanese petrochemical industry following ROC President Ma Ying-jeou’s April 22 announcement withdrawing government support for the Kuokuang petrochemical project. This controversial large-scale oil refinery complex had triggered heated debate involving local residents, environmentalists and big business concerns.
“We want firms to boost added value in their products to over 30 percent,” MOEA officials said. “To achieve this goal, we will offer subsidies and also include R&D expenses and value addition ratios as selection criteria when reviewing firms’ investment proposals.”
CPC Corp., Taiwan’s state-run oil company, will create an R&D center for new petrochemical materials on the site of its fifth naphtha cracker plant after the facility is relocated in 2015. The firm will also spend NT$5 billion (US$172.38 million) on a green technology research institute in the southern Taiwanese port city of Kaohsiung.
These plans will see the petrochemical sector lift its collective R&D expense ratio from 0.32 percent in 2009 to 2 percent by 2020, MOEA officials said. “Ultimately, we expect to see the total added value ratio jump from 14.6 percent to 20 percent by 2020.”
The ministry will begin hashing out the fine details of the plan once consultations with industry representatives and other central and local government agencies have been completed. “For this initiative to succeed, consensus is required between the public and private sectors,” MOEA officials said.
