Measures designed to stimulate investment in Taiwan
- Source: The Global Times
- [08:06 May 18 2009]
- Comments
By Wang Anna
The government has introduced eight new measures to help Taiwan fight the economic downturn, Wang Yi, director of the State Council’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said yesterday.
Speaking at a convention in Xiamen, Fujian Province – part of the ongoing Straits Forum – Wang said the first of the measures was designed to encourage mainland firms to invest in Taiwan, the forum said on its website.
The mainland will arrange for several key figures from the electronics, communications, bio-pharmacy, maritime transportation, infrastructure, trade and commerce, textiles and auto industries to visit Taiwan to discuss investment, he said.
Full details of how firms can invest – drawn up by the Taiwan Affairs Office and the Ministry of Commerce – were published yesterday on the ministry’s website.
The notice said that companies intending to invest must first apply to the Ministry of Commerce, which would consider the opinion of the State Council’s Taiwan Affairs Office before issuing approval. Once approved the firms would be given permission to send their staff to Taiwan.
Among the other government measures are: increased procurement of Taiwan-made products, especially agricultural produce; supporting Taiwan investors’ involvement in mainland infrastructure projects designed to stimulate domestic demand; increasing the number of mainland tourists visiting Taiwan to 600,000 this year; and allowing Taiwan residents to take certificates in 11 professions including auditing and social work.
The mainland will also speed up its preparatory work for official talks on the signing of an economic cooperation framework agreement with Taiwan, Wang said.
“All of the measures were drafted according to the needs of developing cross-Straits relations and will have a positive effect,” Li Fei, a professor with the Taiwan Research Institute of Xiamen University, said.
The Straits Forum is an annual exchange platform comprising conferences, seminars and galas. This year’s weeklong event opened in Xiamen and will run through Friday in four cities in Fujian.
Also at the convention, Jia Qinglin, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said members of Taiwan’s opposition Democratic Progressive Party are also welcome to visit the mainland.
In a related development, Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou visited a job fair as scheduled yesterday and gave a speech about unemployment despite the 24-hour sit-in protest against him staged by opposition Democratic Progressive Party in Taipei just days ahead of the one-year anniversary of his taking office.