• March 29, 2024

Plans for JTI plant in Taiwan meeting opposition

Japan Tobacco International is aiming to invest more than US$300 million to establish a production plant at Tainan, Taiwan, but the project is meeting with opposition, according to a Want China Times story.

The Times said the plant, at Tainan’s Technological Industrial Park, was due to become operational by February next year.

But the John Tung Foundation has other ideas. It called a news conference on Thursday to say that the project violated the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) that Taiwan had signed. The foundation is urging rejection of the project.

After the foundation’s statement, the Tainan city government asked the central government to shed light on the issue.

The foundation said that even if JTI invested US$300 million, the investment would be returned in just a few years and, in the end, it would be the Taiwanese people who would suffer.

But JTI already has a huge presence on the Taiwanese market and, in practice, the establishment of the plant would be about switching from importing to local manufacture.

The project was first screened by the Investment Commission in June, while the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Tainan city government reviewed certain aspects of it.

The plant would be expected to create between 300 and 400 jobs and local people were quoted as saying that JTI had so far followed the law in setting up the plant.

They pointed out that if it were decided to turn the plant down, that decision would affect the willingness of other foreign enterprises to invest in Taiwan.

JTI has been in Taiwan for 15 years and has been active in various public interest activities, such as the preservation of mangrove swamps.