THE Hualon Corporation has insisted that its plans for a £157 million factory on the edge of Belfast remain in place, in spite of the conviction in Taiwan of a former executive on charges of defaulting on share dealings.

Mr Oung Ta-ming, who was described as head of the Hualon Group, was given a four year sentence for the offences, but a spokesman for Hualon, Mr William Lue, said that Mr Oung no longer had any executive role with the company.

"The Hualon Group does not exist as such," Mr Lue said, "and it is the Hualon Corporation which has signed a binding contract with the Industrial Development Board in Northern Ireland.

Mr Oung stepped down three years ago, and this project has nothing to do with him. As far as the Hualon Corporation is concerned, we are very firm about our commitment to the Northern Ireland project, so people should not be worried."

The Hualon project has been in the pipeline since 1994, when the Taiwanese firm was offered more than £60 million in grant assistance from the IDB to set up a factory on a 140 acre site in Mallusk, north of Belfast, which would eventually employ around 1,800 people.

The scheme has been held up by objections from the British Apparel and Textile Confederation and by European textile manufacturers, who complained that the IDB subsidy would distort competition and result in job losses elsewhere.

Last month, the European Court overruled the objections, and backed the decision by the European Commission to let the project go ahead.