Government Aid To Hualon Corporation

EDM number 39 in 1994-95, proposed by Nicholas Winterton on 17/11/1994.

That this House welcomes the commitment of Her Majesty's Government to attracting inward investment to Northern Ireland, but believes that the payment of grants to overseas investors should be handled with great prudence and only after consultation with British companies on the effect of such investments on their own profitability; notes with profound concern the decision to award ú61 million to the Hualon Corporation of Taiwan to open new textile facilities in Northern Ireland; observes that the new facility would lead to greatly subsidised production in a market sector in which there is significant over-capacity within Britain and Europe leading to 1,100 redundancies in the North West Region; notes that on Friday 7th October, Mr Lee Hsiu-fen, an aide to the Head of the Hualon Corporation, and three senior executives from two of the Group's stockbroking companies were detained at Taipei International Airport in connection with alleged stockbroking irregularities; believes that it would be most imprudent for substantial sums of taxpayers' money to be handed to such a company for a projection which will destroy British jobs and contribute to the balance of trade deficit; and urges the Secretary of State to suspend this project until the Committee of Public Accounts and the Northern Ireland Audit Office have investigated and reported upon the situation.

This motion has been signed by a total of 23 MPs.