Liang Baohua, secretary of the Jiangsu provincial committee of the Communist Party of China on the mainland, shakes hands with members of a local welcoming party at the Taoyuan International Airport near Taipei after he arrives as the head of a large mainland procurement mission yesterday. CNA

TAIPEI: The highest-ranking official of the eastern mainland's Jiangsu province arrived in Taipei yesterday for a six-day visit at the head of a large procurement mission.

The arrival of Liang Baohua, secretary of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), is seen as yet another signal that cross-Straits engagements are back on track following the hiccup caused by the visit of the Dalai Lama in August.

As Liang is also a member of the CPC's Central Committee, he is the highest incumbent mainland official ever to visit Taiwan.

Describing his first-ever visit to Taiwan as a journey of cooperation, Liang said he is gratified to be able to set foot on the beautiful island.

"I look forward to helping expand bilateral exchanges and cooperation in various fields through this visit," Liang said at a news conference after arriving.

Today, Liang will attend the inaugural ceremony in Taipei of the Taiwan-Jiangsu friendship week program to highlight their close relations.

Jiangsu boasts the largest concentration of Taiwanese businessmen on the mainland and the highest amount of trade with Taiwan among mainland provinces, according to Beijing's official statistics.

As of the end of September, Jiangsu had approved more than 20,000 Taiwanese investment projects with more than $40 billion in total paid-in capital, accounting for over 30 percent of Taiwan's total investment on the mainland.

Mainland media reports also said that about 300,000 Taiwanese business people and their dependents now work and live in Jiangsu.

As Liang is heading the largest-ever procurement mission from the mainland to visit Taiwan, the reports said, hundreds of Jiangsu-based Taiwanese business people have returned to Taiwan in hopes of securing orders or benefiting from Liang's mission.

Liang is accompanied by many senior provincial officials, business executives, cultural buffs and tour operators on his current visit, and the procurement mission is expected to have a total of 3,000 people after more groups from Jiangsu arrive in the coming days, said sources close to Taiwan's governing Kuomintang, which is hosting the visit.

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 11/10/2009 page2)