The Industrial Development Board will seek investment partners to develop the 150-acre site set aside for the ill-fated £160 million sterling (€247 million) Hualon factory a few miles north of Belfast.
The IDB wants proposals from experienced developers to work with it in capitalising on the benefits of the Corr's Corner site which, according to the board's chief executive, Mr Bruce Robinson, will meet the needs of a wide spectrum of network services and manufacturing applications.
Taiwanese textile group Hualon's project was to have been the largest IDB-backed investment in Northern Ireland in nearly 20 years, but confirmation that it had fallen through came last week, some six years after it was first announced. The decision, which came as no surprise, £160 million factory a few miles north of Belfast will not now go ahead, due was attributed to changes in market conditions.
Mr Robinson said he was disappointed the deal had not worked out, but when it became clear there was no chance of anything happening in the foreseeable future, the IDB had agreed with Hualon the offer should be withdrawn.
"The IDB did not make any payments in respect of the proposed investment," he said. "And has never included the 1,800 jobs in its annual results."
Mr Robinson said the decision had been influenced largely by the financial crisis in many Asian countries, and the fact that it had become a great deal cheaper to manufacture in the Far East than in Europe.
The project, underwritten by a grant of more than £60 million by the IDB, was officially announced in 1994, and was expected to lead to the creation of 1,800 jobs. But almost immediately it ran into a storm of protest from UK textiles companies, which claimed that a project receiving such hefty support amounted to unfair competition, and would result in serious job losses in Britain and in Europe.
Further controversy followed when the authorities in Taiwan charged several senior Hualon executives with offences connected with stock market fraud. This, and a general sense of unease about the project, led to the resignation in November 1994 of IDB board member Ms Jennifer D'Abo. She said there were "too many unanswered questions" about the proposed deal. Ms D'Abo said she was all for creating jobs, but "only if we have got the right partner". It then emerged that the Republic's former minister for industry and commerce, Mr Des O'Malley, had rejected the chance of a deal with Hualon, saying it was "very high risk".
The project was further delayed by the objections of the British Apparel and Textile Confederation, which appealed to the European Court on the grounds that it was anti-competitive. The appeal was turned down in October 1997.
