on (US$4.65 billion) by 2009 as Taiwanese enterprises have been continuing to expand their investments in the sector with the government's encouragement, Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) officials said Saturday. Environmental protection has become an important issue worldwide after signs that global warming is worsening as the greenhouse effect expands. Out of environmental protection concerns, more and more people around the world are turning to non-polluting, recycled green products, the officials said.
The green-purchasing trend has changed enterprises' passive attitude toward environmental protection to an active and aggressive attitude and they have begun injecting money into research and production of so-called green products such as renewable energy and technology to cut down carbon dioxide emissions, the officials said.
In the green trend over the past few years, the world's investment in the green energy industry has risen from the level of US$28 billion in 2004 to US$71 billion in 2006, representing a 1.5-fold increase, the CEPD said, touting the sector as a rising star in global investment.
In Taiwan, the annual production value of the green energy sector amounted to NT$92.96 billion in 2006, posting a growth of 40 percent over the previous year, while that of the environmental protection services sector grew from NT$39.63 billion in 2004 to NT$57.39 billion in 2005, the officials said.
In the government's planned efforts to push for the emerging industries' development, the green output is expected to increase to NT$152.4 billion in green energy production and NT$70.9 billion in environmental protection services by 2009, they added.
