The petrochemical sector hopes the government will soon approve a local consortium's planned investment project in China, the head of the Petrochemical Industry Association of Taiwan said. Association chairman and founder of Ho Tung Chemical, Preston Chen, said he hoped the government would not wait until after the Jan. 14 presidential election to make a decision on the project.

"The Ministry of Economic Affairs has its own considerations, but the petrochemical sector hopes the project will not be linked with politics. No matter who wins the election, whoever is in power will need the petrochemical sector," Chen said on the sidelines of a cross-Taiwan Strait energy forum.

"The government has yet to approve the project, but we have no other way," Chen said. A petrochemical group in which Chen was an investor had long wanted to build a naphtha cracker complex on wetlands in Changhua County, but the government rejected the plan in April in the wake of protests by environmental groups.

Chen said talks promoting a similar project in Gulei Peninsula in Zhangzhou had been "basically completed" after four Taiwanese companies -- China Petrochemical Development Corp., Ho Tung Chemical Corp., CLY Chemical Corp. and USI Corp. -- set up a joint venture, Gulei Petrochemical Co. to develop the project. The four companies signed a cooperation framework agreement in August to enter into a joint venture with China's Sinopec Group and the Fujian provincial government. Chen said that if the project were quickly approved, it could begin production in 2015 and refine 16 million tons of oil and produce 1.2 million tons of ethylene a year. The government has yet to allow companies to invest in naphtha cracker facilities in China. The Ministry of the Economic Affairs has said the pre-condition for lifting the ban would be that Taiwan has control over the investment project.

Chen acknowledged that if Taiwan had a 51 percent stake in the project, it would be a clear sign of control, but he hoped the government would not focus on the distribution of shares in the company, suggesting that Taiwan's ability to secure raw materials for the facility was "a disguised form of control." Chen said in August that the four Taiwanese petrochemical companies will chip in for the US$15 billion Gulei venture along with Chinese investors.

The four companies will jointly hold a 50 percent stake in the new venture while Sinopec Group and the Fujian provincial government will control the remaining stake, Chen said.