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SEF's new chief wants to exchange offices with China

Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Hung Chi-chang (洪奇昌) on Thursday suggested the foundation and its Chinese counterpart exchange representative offices.

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker said the foundation and the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) were both given consular functions when they were established by their governments in the early 1990s as intermediary bodies to handle cross-strait affairs in the absence of official ties.

"We hope the SEF and the ARATS will serve their consular functions more effectively by exchanging representative offices," Hung said during an informal gathering with reporters.

He also said he hoped the foundation would regain its role as the government's negotiator with China, with its officials allowed to take part in cross-strait talks on technical issues.

Hung said he expected an emergency cross-strait charter flight which brought a group of injured Taiwanese tourists home yesterday would serve as a model for normalizing cross-strait emergency medical flights.

He said that foundation officials should be allowed to go to China to provide humanitarian services when Taiwanese are injured or killed there.

Citing a fatal car accident involving Chinese tourists in Nantou County last year, Hung said the government had allowed Chinese tourism officials to come here to provide assistance in the aftermath of the accident.

He said he supported the idea of Chinese airlines setting up offices in this country to deal with the anticipated launch of weekend cross-strait charter flights.

Hung also said the foundation would open a service center in Hualien County next month to better serve people living in eastern Taiwan.

The foundation already has centers in central and southern Taiwan to help the 250,000 Chinese spouses in the country. Most of these spouses live in the central, southern and eastern parts of the country.

The foundation also plans to take on the role of a think tank by sponsoring research on issues of interest to Taiwanese investors, Hung said.

He said convincing China-based Taiwanese investors to invest more in Taiwan would be one of his most important missions as SEF chief.

When asked about the DPP's refusal to endorse his appointment as foundation chairman, Hung said he would meet DPP Chairman Yu Shyi-kun to discuss the issue.
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