Taiwan's largest petrochemical group, Formosa Plastics, will this year begin building three projects in the eastern mainland port city of Ningbo.
A municipal government official said Formosa Plastics planned to invest US$1 billion to set up a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plant with an annual production capacity of 300,000 tonnes, an acrylonitrile butadiene styrene plant with annual capacity of 250,000 tonnes and a heat and power plant in Ningbo's economic and technical development zone.
'Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs investment commission has already approved the project. The Ningbo side is now co-operating [with them] on the early stage preparations,' Ningbo Municipal People's Government vice-general secretary Fan Haibo said at the Ningbo-Hong Kong Economic Co-operation Forum.
When the PVC plant received approval last month, Formosa Plastics said it expected it would take two to three years to build. Mr Fan says once the three projects are completed, they will form the largest foreign investment in Ningbo.
Taiwan is the second-largest overseas investor in Ningbo, Zhejiang province. Companies from the island have already signed US$149 million worth of contracted investments in the first five months of this year.
Hong Kong is the largest overseas investor. Mr Fan said it signed US$380 million in contracted investments between January and May this year.
Ningbo authorities are in talks with potential investors from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Europe and the United States to take a stake in the third phase of Beilun Port, one of the mainland's four international deep water ports.