Industry warns of boycott

A heavyweight industrial organization is threatening to boycott and quit the proposed Sustainable Econ-omic Development Conference if the government cannot convince them of its goodwill and determination to carry out the industry's much needed cross-strait relaxation, the association said yesterday.

"We are considering dropping out, if the government fails to give us a clear and benign response to our four major appeals by July 20 when our board meeting is slated to decide on whether to continue our participation," Liu Chih-tung (劉志棟), a director of Chinese National Federation of Industries (工業總會), said in a phone interview yesterday.

"We do not want to disappoint our members and endorse any government policy of no benefit to industry," Liu said.

Matters on the top on the organization's agenda include the relaxation of China-bound investment -- which is currently restricted to a maximum of 40 percent of any company's net value -- full opening of passenger and cargo links across the Taiwan Strait, an "unbiased environmental pol-icy" with no adverse implications for manufacturing and adequate provisions for the import of foreign labor.

The association represents around 70,000 manufacturers that collectively create output of NT$11 trillion (US$339 billion) and exports of NT$5.6 trillion, according to association data.

Scheduled for July 27 and 28, the conference aims to collect viewpoints from over 150 participants to help revamp the government's economic policy.

Liu said industry's expectation for a breakthrough on cross-strait economic relations has faded after seeing strong opposition during the preparatory meetings.

"We have started to realize that it is unlikely that we will see any opening measures materialize at the conference," Liu said.

Proposals to ease China-bound investment bans have been controversial with opponents arguing that the cross-strait links falls under the president's authority and that the risks of concentrating Taiwanese investment in a hostile country are high.

Despite the Association's view, the General Chamber of Commerce (全國商業總會) and Chinese National Association of Industry and Commerce (工商協進會) said they will join the conference.

"We will stick to our original intention and will seek benign communication with other representatives in the conference," said Chamber of Commerce Spokesman Chen Cheng-yi (陳正毅).

In preparatory meetings, the chamber has voiced the need for cross-strait direct links, the liberalization of restrictions on the import of foreign workers import and the abolition of the minimum wage to assist in the development of the local services sector, Chen said.

In response, Vice Premier Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday that the government will continue communicating with the industry. On the sideline of an economics forum yesterday morning, Tsai said the government would endeavor to hammer out a set of policies in response to industry's demands if no consensus on those issues was forthcoming.