Jobless rate to affect `go slow' policy, MAC says

An official in charge of mapping out Taiwan's China policy said yesterday that the country's unemployment rate will have an effect on the timing and scale in which the government eases the current "go slow, be patient" policy toward investing in China.

John Deng (鄧振中), vice chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council, made the remarks at a seminar sponsored by a Taipei business executives' association on problems faced by Taiwanese investors in China.

Some participants voiced worries about rising unemployment. They said that if the government chooses to ease the "go slow, be patient" policy now, it will induce more Taiwan enterprises to move to China, making the bleak domestic employment market even worse.

Deng responded that the plight of the jobless will be taken into consideration when the government eases the "go slow" policy.