More than a year after it was rejected by local environmental authorities, an 18 million dollar Taiwanese floating dry-dock is being reconsidered by the Marshall Islands.
Taiwan company Ching Fu has resubmitted a proposal to locate its football field-size dry-dock in Majuro, the Marshall Islands capital, with a public hearing set for next Tuesday.
In mid-2005, the plan sparked strong public outrage because Ching Fu, with government support, wanted to locate the dry dock in the center of the main urban area of the atoll.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials said Friday they would not change the 2005 decision that rejected the preferred location.
However, they were considering an alternative downtown location, adjacent to residential areas and less than half a mile from the main hotel in the capital, the Marshall Islands Resort.
Taiwan ambassador to the Marshall Islands Lien-gene Chen said he hoped there would be "favorable consideration" of the new Ching Fu plan.
"It's too important for the Marshall Islands to ignore it," he said, adding that the siting of a dry-dock in Majuro will have multiple spin-off benefits for the local economy by attracting fishing vessels for repairs and maintenance.
The public hearing was scheduled because the "proposed alternative site was not detailed in the originally released public environmental impact assessment document of last year," the EPA said in a statement.
Ching Fu officials have asked for a fast response, and the EPA confirmed that it aims to make a decision within three days of the public hearing.
The Marshall Islands is one of six nations in the Pacific with diplomatic ties to Taiwan, and receives more than 12 million dollars annually from Taipei in funding and technical assistance.
