The Pingtan Comprehensive Pilot Zone is eyeing a 16 percent year-on-year GDP growth for 2015, according to a senior official on Jan 16.

It also will strive to realize a 17 percent increase in fiscal revenue and 25 percent increase in fixed-asset investment, said Zhou Qingsong, deputy director of PCPZ’s administrative committee, at a working conference.

As the only experimental area on the Chinese mainland open to Taiwan, Pingtan will enhance cross-Straits communication and cooperation in the new year, as it plans to attract more than 7,000 Taiwanese entrepreneurs for pre-investment investigation, and attract at least 2,000 Taiwanese people to work and start up their careers here, he added.

The number of new Taiwanese enterprises in Pingtan in 2015 is expected to exceed 150, and more than 50 of them will settle in a local business incubator.

Pingtan will land at least 50 projects with an accrued investment of more than 50 billion yuan. There will be at least 100 enterprises engaged in cross-border e-commerce.

In terms of cross-Straits traffic, Haixia and Natchan Rena, two high-speed roll-on-roll-off passenger ships, which commute between Pingtan and Taiwan, are expected to transfer around 200,000 passengers. A new sea route linking Pingtan and Hsinchu is likely to be launched; and Taiwanese vehicles are going to be allowed to drive in Pingtan sometime this year.

Pingtan will also cooperate with Taiwan to jointly set up mediation agencies. It will also make efforts to accept Taiwan’s qualification authentication, especially in accounting, architecture and financing, in a bid to provide convenience for those Taiwanese working in Pingtan. There will be two communities for Taiwanese people in Pingtan.