Human-rights activists and environmental groups have called on the government to tighten regulations on investments by domestic firms abroad, as controversy over a Formosa Plastics Group (FPG, 台塑集團) steel plant in Vietnam increases.
“Our investment review process should be revised to push corporations that are heading south to fulfill their social responsibilities and act as good international citizens,” Environmental Jurists Association president Chang Yu-yin (張譽尹) said at a news conference.
Vietnamese representatives at the conference accused FPG of killing millions of fish along the country’s central coast.
Chang said that Taiwanese companies should be required to abide by international environmental, labor and human-rights standards, even if regulations and enforcement in a host country are lax.
Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets in Vietnamese cities since last month, alleging that the death of millions of fish is linked to run-off from the construction of a nearby FPG steel mill.
The mill — which has reportedly cost more than NT$30 billion (US$926 million) to build — was originally scheduled to begin operations tomorrow, but the opening date has been put on hold indefinitely following charges of tax evasion brought by the Vietnamese government against FPG.
The Vietnamese government has also brought in an international team of experts to examine why the fish died, with a final report expected by the end of the month.
The delay is the latest for the troubled project, which was also reportedly a major focus of anti-Chinese protestors in 2014, leading to the death of several workers.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wu Kun-yuh (吳焜裕) called for the government to serve as a “good neighbor” and offer its assistance to the investigation, adding that Taiwanese firms should hold themselves to a “higher standard” if local environmental law is inadequate.
“The Environmental Protection Administration offered to help pinpoint the cause, but they were politely rejected by the Vietnamese government because it doubted whether they could be impartial,” Department of Investment Services deputy head Wang Jien-ping (王劍平) said, but dismissed calls for additional oversight regulations.
“Investment in foreign countries is regulated by local governments, just like we regulate foreign investment in Taiwan,” he said. “If you cause pollution in a country, that is something the country itself regulates.”
