Taipei, June 19 (CNA) The Kaohsiung Harbor Bureau is on its wayto purchasing a plot of reclaimed land from the Kaohsiung Citygovernment to establish a solar energy industrial district in theharbor's free trade zone, the bureau's director-general saidSaturday.

Hsiao Ding-hsun told CNA that the bureau plans to buy 49 hectaresof the land, which is part of land reclaimed from the sea under thesouthern Taiwanese city's "Nansing (South Star) Project."

Under the bureau's plan, the new land will become part of theKaohsiung Harbor free trade zone, and will be used exclusively toserve the manufacturing and processing of solar energy-relatedproducts, Hsiao said.

"It will be very convenient for the products to be exported fromthe harbor," he said.

Since the land purchasing and efforts to lobby foreign anddomestic companies to set up their production lines in the plannedindustrial district have been proceeding without glitches, Hsiao saidhe expects the solar energy district construction project to beginshowing results before the end of this year.

The Nansing Project is the Kaohsiung City government's ambitiousplan to reclaim 250 hectares of land along the city's western coastby 2011. So far, the city has regained 170 hectares of land.

(By Wang Shu-fen and Elizabeth Hsu)
enditem/cs