Government and Policy
Mainland, Taiwan weigh up benefits of economic pact
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-03-15 21:58
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BEIJING - After almost two decades on the Chinese mainland, Taiwan businessman Lee Rie-ho owns a well-known tea group that runs more than 1,000 outlets across the country.
However, his Ten Fu Group still only holds around 3 percent of the total mainland market. "The market here is amazingly large," says Lee, 75.
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Before the Chinese New Year on February 14, 2010, Lee was among a group of Taiwan business people who met with President Hu Jintao on his inspection tour of Fujian Province, a major destination of Taiwan investments.
Besides conveying festival greetings, President Hu called the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), an economic pact under negotiation between the mainland and Taiwan, a "good deal" to promote cross-Strait economic cooperation and achieve mutual benefits.
Hu promised the mainland would take into full consideration the interests of people in Taiwan, especially farmers, during the meeting.
The ECFA, a priority in cross-Strait relations, is aimed at institutionalizing economic cooperation between the mainland and Taiwan and facilitating and regularizing economic and trade exchanges.
In December, leaders of the mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) and the island's Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) exchanged opinions on negotiating and signing the ECFA during their fourth round of talks in Taichung of Taiwan. They agreed to focus on the topic in their fifth round of talks this year.
On January 26, experts from the two sides held the first round of talks on the ECFA in Beijing. They agreed that the basic content of the agreement would cover major economic activities across the Strait, including market access for commodities and services.
Zhang Guanhua, deputy director of the Institute of Taiwan Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told Xinhua that signing the ECFA would help promote structural adjustment of economies across the Strait and lay more solid foundations for the peaceful development of relations.
