Fuzhou faces Taiwan across the Taiwan Straits. It is the capital city of a mainland province sitting nearest to Taiwan. It is also a famous native place of people in Taiwan. Fuzhou and Taiwan are close in geography, history, blood relations, language, and commerce.

To date, there are about 800,000 people in Taiwan with Fuzhou as their native place. Each county and city of Taiwan has a Fuzhou fellowship association. Dong’ao of Pingtan County, Fuzhou is only 68 sea miles away from Hsinchu, Taiwan. Huangqi of Lianjiang, Fuzhou is less than 8 kilometers away from Matsu Taiwan. Since reform and opening up, Fuzhou has successively listed by the country as a pilot port for direct flights across the Taiwan Straits, a pilot area for agricultural cooperation across the Taiwan Straits, and a port for Taiwanese to handle entry permit procedures.

It hosts a state-level industrial cooperation base for Taiwanese investors. It enjoys flexible policies as endowed by the central government to “keep direct economic and trade relations with Taiwan Island, Jinmen, Matsu and Penghu regions.” In 2008, Fuzhou was listed by the country as a city for direct chartered passenger flights and direct marine cargo shipment across the Straits, and the only headquarters for land and marine mail service across the Straits. Now, Fuzhou has become one of the regions on the mainland to extend widest preferential policies to Taiwan investors and make most active exchanges across the Straits.

In 2006, General Secretary Hu Jintao inspected Fujian, earnestly expecting the province to take the initiatives to make experiments and expand exchanges across the Straits. Fuzhou City bears in mind the great trust and hope of General secretary Hu, firmly grasps the historical opportunity that the central government extends support to the development of regions west to the Taiwan Straits, and actively experiments to exchange with Taiwan counterparts.

By the end of 2008, the annual trade between Fuzhou and Taiwan had reached 2.2 billion U.S. dollars. A total of 1,965 Taiwan-funded enterprises had settled in Fuzhou (excluding those transferred from a third place), with a contractual investment of 3.58 billion U.S. dollars.

In recent years, Fuzhou has successively sponsored a list of high-grade, influential and effective activities, such as the Cross Straits Buddhism (Fuzhou Gushan) Cultural Exchange Seminar, Cross Straits City Youth Innovation Seminar, Taiwan Agricultural Products Supply Fair, and the first session Cross Straits Chorus Festival.

Along with historical breakthroughs in the three direct links of trade, mail, and air and shipping services across the Taiwan Straits, Fuzhou has met an unprecedented opportunity to fully explore across Straits exchanges and cooperation.

The city will intensify efforts to make cooperation in the high-tech industry, modern service industry, and cultural innovation industry between Fuzhou and Taiwan. It will work hard to make experiments in financial cooperation, and realize new breakthroughs in industrial cooperation between the two places.

It will give priority to promoting market access of bulk fruits from Taiwan. It will speed up developing logistics and distribution services across the Straits. It will seek to make new breakthrough in developing a big market and big trade across the Straits. It will take the opportunity to well sponsor the “5•18” Cross-Straits Fair for Economic and Trade, and Cross-Straits seminars to make progress in the fields of cultures, education, science and technology, sport, youth, religion and folk customs.

It will actively launch a group of high-grade and characteristic exchange activities with Taiwan, and realize new progress in expanding exchanges across the Straits.It will keep making plans and promoting experiments for exchanges and cooperation between Fuzhou and Taiwan to contribute more to the win-win cooperation and peaceful development across the Straits.

Editor: Xie Fang