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Updated Monday, December 21, 2009 9:27 am TWN, The China Post news staff

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President Ma vows to strive for FTAs after inking ECFA

Rectification for ECFA

The president's elaboration of the ECFA with China was seen as his administration's campaign to step up communication with the public to relay what it deems as the accurate message to the grassroots communities, while the DPP has long distributed its version of interpretations and attacked the agreement via underground and illegal media organizations.

Aside from the Rectification for the ECFA by Premier Wu Den-yih, who repeated that the deal with China is aimed at avoiding marginalization of Taiwan's business and industries in the Asia-Pacific region, Vice Chairman Kao Chang of the Cabinet-level Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday the benefits of the ECFA far outweigh the negative impact.

In a CTV program, Kao also said that the government has been working on programs to minimize the possible negative effects by allocating subsidies amounting to more than NT$90 billion in coming years.

Of the total, a sum of more than NT$30 billion is earmarked for assistance to underprivileged laborers who could be affected.

Public Forums

Director General Huang Chih-peng of the Bureau of Foreign Trade (BOFT) under the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) will personally take part in a public forum this afternoon to help dispel fears from the ECFA with China.

At the gathering to be held at the auditorium of the Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection on Jinan Road in Taipei, Huang is expected to give a briefing on the ECFA for half an hour and then take questions on related issues for 90 minutes.

Following preliminary contacts and talks, Huang is expected to meet his Chinese counterpart in late January next year to lay groundwork for the fifth round of cross-strait talks and the ECFA pact.

Officials from other government agencies are seen to intensify a publicity drive to express their version of the ECFA to offset the impact from the message from opponents.

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