TAIWAN MINISTER MEETS WITH DELEGATES ON APEC MEETING SIDELINES.

KHON KAEN, Thailand, June 2 Asia Pulse - Taiwan Minister of Economic Affairs Lin Yi-fu held bilateral talks with chief delegates of several countries Sunday on the sidelines of a trade ministers meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.

Lin, who arrived in Thailand Saturday at the head of a 19-member delegation to attend the June 1-3 APEC meeting, discussed matters of mutual concern with the top representatives from Thailand, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea and Mexico in separate meetings.

All the foreign representatives expressed concern about the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in Taiwan. Lin briefed them on the latest information and assured them that the disease has been brought under control on the island.

In his talks with Thai Minister of Commerce Adisai Bodharamik, Lin expressed gratitude for Thailand's decision to include the SARS epidemic on the current APEC meeting agenda to enable all member economies to exchange information and experience in battling this new potentially fatal disease.

Lin told Adisai that none of the 140,000 Thai workers in Taiwan have come down with SARS. He further said the Taiwanese government has never discriminated against Thai workers and has consistently offered them the same treatment as Taiwan nationals.

The Taiwan representative to Thailand, Cheng Bo-jo, who was also present at the meeting, said more than 4,000 Thai workers have returned to Thailand since the disease appeared in Taiwan in March.

"But they left Taiwan because of the expiration of their work contracts, not because of SARS fears as some media reports have claimed," Cheng said, adding that the Taiwan representative office in Bangkok now receives an average of 300 applications per day from Thai citizens wanting to work in Taiwan.