Responding to media speculation yesterday, the secretary-general of the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF,
"We will not recruit new employees to fill vacant posts if anyone leaves his or her current position. This adjustment is in line with the government's budgeting standard," Shi said.
Shi made the remarks after attending a conference for Chinese-bound Taiwanese businessmen yesterday.
He was speaking to reporters who had asked him about a report in a Chinese-language newspaper yesterday that employees of the foundation had been consulted about a proposed pay cut.
The government faces a shortage of finances and the quasi-official SEF, which receives most of its funds from the government, also faces a shortage.
Yesterday's report cited an unnamed source employed by the foundation as saying that employees had been consulted over a plan to cut salaries by as much as NT$6,900 per employee per month, which triggered media speculations that the foundation might be downsizing.
Shi declined to comment on the employee's comments. He said that the foundation would adjust its payroll structure to respond to the shortage, but said it is a "temporary measure."
"Currently there are no large-scale negotiations and no extensive exchanges underway between Taiwan and China, so recruiting new employees is not necessary. But that situation has nothing to do with the SEF downsizing, or its functions being curtailed," Shi said.
He stressed that the SEF might yet expand if future negotiations with China require it to do so.
China has rejected talks with the SEF since former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) proposed "special state to state" relations between Taiwan and China in 1999.
Aiming at finding a resolution to resume cross-strait talks, Taiwan has proposed a "re-authorization" model to allow it to delegate non-profit or charitable organizations to conduct negotiations with China on its behalf.
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