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Mainland-Taiwan co-op 'needed to fight global crisis'

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-10-16 07:25

More cooperation is needed between the mainland and Taiwan in order to cope with the global financial crisis, a mainland official said Wednesday.

Yang Yi, spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office, said the office will do all it can to encourage and promote experience sharing between the financial sectors on both sides of the Taiwan Straits.

He said he was confident the two sides can use their combined wisdom and strength to overcome difficulties, and that both economies will prosper.

Yang Yi

A number of Taiwan-invested companies on the mainland - mostly export-oriented, labor-intensive SMEs - are facing pressure due to the global financial instability, but government departments on the mainland are taking measures to support them, Yang said.

These include providing tax refunds on some textile and garment exports, and helping with industrial upgrading and transfers, he said.

The government has also promised further measures to help these businesses develop, he said.

Also Wednesday, Yang said the mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) and Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation are currently discussing the details of the planned visit to Taiwan by ARATS president Chen Yunlin, which was proposed during the first talks between the two organizations.

The semi-official bodies met in June, at which time they signed deals on mainland tourism to the island and weekend chartered flights.

More than 4,000 people from the mainland traveled to Taiwan during the National Day holiday, more than twice as many as did last year, Yang said.

"The average daily number of mainland tourists to Taiwan was 270 before the Golden Week, but that grew to 576 between Sept 29 and Oct 5," he said.

Under the current agreement, people from 13 mainland provinces and municipalities are permitted to visit Taiwan on the weekend charter flights, with a maximum of 3,000 being allowed to travel on any one day.

Yang said the mainland is considering opening up cross-Straits travel to more cities and provinces.

Last year, about 16 million people from the mainland visited Hong Kong and about 12 million visited Macao, Yang said.

"Judging from these figures, I am very optimistic about the future of cross-Straits tourism, especially the number of mainland tourists going to Taiwan," he said.

China Daily-Xinhua