Taiwan

Mainland,Taiwan likely to ink medical co-op agreement

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-12-09 15:51

BEIJING - The Chinese mainland and Taiwan are expected to sign a medical and health cooperation agreement this month, the mainland's Taiwan affairs chief Wang Yi said Thursday.

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The two sides have completed consultations at the expert level on the agreement, with the two sides' top negotiators likely to sign the deal during the upcoming sixth round of talks, Wang said in Beijing.

Wang, director of the Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks during a meeting with a Taiwanese delegation led by Fredrick Chien.

The sixth round of talks between the mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) and the Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) is expected to be held in mid-to-late December. ARATS and SEF resumed talks in 2008.

Wang, also director of the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, said the two sides also made "positive progress" in consultations concerning a cross-Straits investment protection agreement.

He said the investment protection agreement is an important part of the follow-up negotiations after the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) took effect in September.

"We hope and also believe that as long as the two sides head in the same direction, care about each other's concern, we can reach an agreement which is mutually beneficial," he said.

The ARATS and SEF are the two institutions respectively authorized by the mainland and Taiwan to handle cross-Straits affairs.