BEIJING, May 26 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese mainland's Taiwan affairs department Wednesday expressed concerns for a string of suicides at a factory of Taiwan-based Foxconn Technology Group in Shenzhen.

"We are deeply sorry for the Foxconn employees who jumped to their death," said Yang Yi, spokesman with the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, at a regular press conference here.

The mainland governments have placed great importance on investigations into the incidents and helped the company adopt effective measures to prevent the situation from worsening, he said.

"The State Council Taiwan Affairs Office will closely work with other departments and the local government to deal with the incidents," he said.

In the past five months, 11 employees of Foxconn's Shenzhen factory had jumped from high buildings and nine died.

Foxconn is part of Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. and makes computers, game consoles and mobile phones for companies including Hewlett-Packard Co., Sony Corp. and Nokia Corp.

Of Foxconn's 800,000 employees in the mainland, 420,000 are based in Shenzhen.

Yang denied the incidents would affect the economic relations across the Taiwan Strait.

"We welcome and encourage Taiwan companies to invest in the mainland. We also hope the employers would take care of their employees," he said.