Taiwan's economic minister Monday encouraged local companies to reduce their presence in China, as higher salaries on the mainland make business harder, government-controlled media reported.
The reports of Shih Yen-hsiang's remarks emerged after the island's IT giant Foxconn unveiled a plan to raise salaries for assembly line workers by nearly 70 percent at its suicide-hit facilities in south China's Shenzhen city.
Taiwanese firms should move high-end production back to Taiwan from China, while placing low-end activities in Southeast Asia, Shih was quoted as telling the National Association of Industry and Commerce.
"Maybe it's time for the plants to move their production lines to Southeast Asia or some other areas where the cost is lower," he said, according to Central News Agency.
The agency did not quote Shih as referring directly to the Foxconn case.
Taiwan businesses are among the biggest foreign players in China, with at least 80 billion US dollars invested there.
Officials at the economic ministry and the industry and commerce association contacted by AFP were not able to confirm Shih's remarks.
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