After over 10 years in operation, the sixth naphtha cracker plant run by the Formosa Plastics Group (FPG) in Yunlin County has not had a major negative impact on local residents' lives, but nor has it made a significant contribution to the local community, a seminar heard Wednesday. These findings from an investigation conducted by National Sun Yat-sen University Professor Lee Cheng-di were reported on day one of a three-day seminar being held by the Institute of Environment and Resource in Taipei under the Cabinet-level Environmental Protection Administration (EPA). While the plant has helped boost some small retail businesses in nearby communities, it has not helped to increase output of local fishery and agricultural industries, he reported. Yunlin is an agricultural-based county in central Taiwan. More than 20 experts and scholars gathered to debate the overall contribution and condition of the naphtha cracker in Yunlin's Mailiao Township, which has encountered a series of problems in recent months, including two major fires in July and two reports of foul odor leaking from the plant in September. 'This is the first time such a large meeting to evaluate public safety has been held,' EPA Minister Stephan Shu-hung Shen said at the event. 'The FPG's naphtha cracker plant is a huge project, and we are very concerned whether its fifth-stage expansion would pose an adverse impact on the environment, ' Shen said. The FPG will also present a self-assessment report, Shen said, but the EPA has yet to reach an agreement with the group regarding the assessment method to be adopted by FPG. Conclusions drawn at the seminar will serve as a reference for the government to decide the fate of the plant's expansion. A recent survey showed that nearly 80 percent of Yunlin residents are dissatisfied with feedback measures proposed by FPG, while 32.4 percent of respondents believe the plant has done little help to the local economy. As of the end of 2009, FPG had invested NT$628.3 billion (US$20.33 billion) in the naphtha plant and its peripheral businesses, with the production value totaling around NT$952.2 billion, according to Gu Young, a professor at the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, who also attended Wednesday's seminar. 