Taiwan

Stability key to cross-Straits prosperity: official

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-04-15 23:51

BOAO, Hainan - Cross-Straits stability is key to the realization of common prosperity in the Chinese mainland and Taiwan, said the mainland's Taiwan affairs chief, Wang Yi, on Friday.

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Wang, director of the Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made the remarks at a reception dinner for Frederick Chien, top advisor of the Taiwan-based Cross-Straits Common Market Foundation, who headed a delegation to the 2011 annual meeting of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) held in the southern island province of Hainan.

Wang said that people on both sides should "cherish the current peaceful development situation and strengthen the political foundation the two have achieved."

He noted that authorities would more effectively implement the early harvest program of the cross-Straits Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) that took effect on January 1 and promote its follow-up negotiations so that the agreement would "benefit Taiwan's grassroots people and small- and medium-sized enterprises."

The two sides should also seize opportunities to improve cross-Straits industrial and financial cooperation and introduce mainland investment to the island, he said.

"Mainlanders' individual trips to the island could be realized before the end of June if both sides are sincere in dealing with the case," he said. Currently, the island only allows mainland tourists to visit Taiwan on package tours.

Wang said he hoped that through consultations, the two sides could sign pacts concerning nuclear power safety "as soon as possible" as "it concerns the health and well-being of people on both sides."