Pingtan Island to benefit from proximity to Taiwan

Pingtan Island in East China's Fujian province, the nearest place on the mainland to Taiwan, will adopt a new set of policies to support the development of investment from Taiwan, senior officials said on Wednesday.

Wang Dongfeng, vice-minister of the State Administration of Industry and Commerce, said the agency has enacted 16 policies to facilitate the registration, licensing, advertising and trademark administration of Taiwan-funded enterprises.

"The new policies have expanded the jurisdiction to our local offices in Pingtan for overseas company's registration and other functions, which will make it more convenient and put fewer limitations on market access from Taiwan enterprises," Wang said.

Enterprises funded with overseas capital in Pingtan will be able to apply directly for registration as well as other business-related licenses from the administration's local offices rather than being examined by the head office in Beijing.

The scope of enterprises that can apply for business registration in Pingtan has also been expanded.

The local authority is also planning to relax limitations when Taiwan-funded enterprises apply to register enterprise names. According to the new rules, companies are allowed to choose a name even if the expression is used in Taiwan.

In addition, Taiwan-funded enterprises can use traditional Chinese characters on outdoor advertisements in Pingtan.

"The new move will help to reduce the commercial cost of Taiwan-funded enterprises and help to lure more big companies and projects to Pingtan," said Ni Yuefeng, vice-governor of Fujian province.

Alex Yeh, general manager of digital publishing company Straits Multi-Media, which was set up in Pingtan last week, said the registration process was shorter than he expected thanks to the policy.

"The administration of industry and commerce relaxed the restriction on the company's name and gave us advertising business permits in an efficient way," he said.

"I hope the local government can further promote favorable policies, allowing more and more Taiwan businessmen and investors to understand and benefit from them."

The new policies also urged Pingtan to strengthen cooperation and exchanges with Taiwan in attacking trademark infringement, protecting consumer rights and maintaining food security.

Pingtan Island, with an area of about 324 square kilometers, is 126 km from Hsinchu on Taiwan's west coast. The island has called for bold moves to explore economic and political measures that take advantage of its proximity to Taiwan.

Du Yuansheng, a Pingtan government official, said that an investment of 60 billion yuan ($9.5 billion) will be used this year to improve infrastructure on Pingtan. A new sea route will also be added to connect Pingtan with Taipei, Du said.

Contact the writers at tanzongyang@chinadaily.com.cn and humeidong@chinadaily.com.cn.