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Mainland pushes for economic ties with Taiwan

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-11-19 16:45

XI'AN: A Chinese mainland official on Taiwan affairs said here Thursday that the mainland would work actively for "normalization" of economic relations with Taiwan.

Wang Yi, director of the Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, said at a conference on cross-Strait cooperation in trade and science held in the northwestern Shaanxi Province that the priority of economic relations between the two sides at present and in the next stage is to negotiate and sign the cross-Strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA).

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Wang said experts from the mainland and Taiwan have basically completed joint research on the ECFA.

"The results show that signing the agreement would produce positive impact on the economic development of both sides, especially that of Taiwan," said Wang.

He said results of the joint research would be made public "at a selected time", so as to further pave the way for negotiations "under the framework of the mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) and the Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF)."

The ARATS and the SEF are authorized by the two sides to handle cross-Strait issues.

Wang also vowed to push for more cooperation in science, technology and new industries. "We would speed up two-way flow and reasonable distribution of productive factors across the Taiwan Strait, as the two sides have complementary advantages."

He also expressed willingness to continue to seek solutions to problems in trade, investment and finance under the framework of the ARATS and the SEF, which are to hold a fourth round of talks in Taiwan in December.