(http://www.epa.gov.tw/news/gn870728.htm) With the promulgation of the Soil and Underground Water Remediation Act on February 2, 2000, it seems that this problem will be taken care of more rigorously hereafter.

Concluding Remarks

     Although the government had formally recognized the problem of Taiwan's industrial pollution by the promulgation of laws in 1974, the implementation of these laws and related regulations was not taken seriously until after the 1980s. This lag in time reflected to some extent that there was tension between industrial development and environmental protection. For instance, the disposal of enterprise waste was emphasized by the revision of the Waste Disposal Act in 1985; however, only 30 percent were properly disposed until 1997. Similarly, the situation of enterprise wastewater control was not yet fully improved as only 84 percent of factories at 40 industrial zones had connected with the wastewater treatment plants by 1998. To be sure, industry was not the only source of pollution; however, the amount of industrial waste has been enormous. We have seen that consecutive programs of pollution control were designed and implemented by the EPA and the IDB. However, the successfulness of these programs undoubtedly required that enterprises take concerted actions. It is also notable that environmental movements conducted by people and environmental protection groups also played an important role in the process of change. Facing global environmental requirements and international competition, more and more Taiwanese enterprises have obtained ISO-14000 certificates in recent years.

This indicates that adopting a cleaner production process is a positive way not only to save Taiwan's environment but also to keep up Taiwan's industrial competition in the world.