After the Cross-Straits Economic and Trade Forum opened in
Beijing on April 14, an Internet survey conducted by the Social
Investigation Center of China Youth Daily on April 18
shows that 74.6 percent of 1,264 interviewees on the mainland
believe that relations across the Taiwan Straits have become much
closer than previously, according to Chinanews.cn yesterday.
Of those responding 21.9 percent thought relations remained at
the same level, while only 3.5 percent felt the mainland and Taiwan
have been estranged from each other.
During the forum the mainland announced a new package of
policies, including three sets of procedures directly stipulated by
the State Council and 12 others formulated by relevant central
government departments, to promote economic and trade
relations.
The three sets of State Council policies are as follows:
- To add four more varieties to a list of 18 fruits currently
grown in Taiwan and exported
- To adopt a zero-tax regime on imports of 11 kinds of vegetables
produced by Taiwan farmers
- To allow more imports of Taiwan's aquatic products with
zero-tax on some of them and allow Taiwan fishing boats to have the
policies as their mainland counterparts for selling their
products
Statistics show that, with the development of cross-Straits
economic relations and trade in 2005, there have been 3,907
Taiwan-funded projects approved by the mainland and the actual
capital utilization has reached US$2.15 billion. Indirect trade
volume between the mainland and Taiwan hit US$91.23 billion.
The personnel exchanges across the Taiwan Straits also created a
new record in 2005. The total volume of people from Taiwan to the
mainland was more than 4 million person-times and the figure of
mainland visitors to Taiwan was about 160,000 person-times.
The current cross-Straits communication covers many areas
including culture, education, science, sports and the like.
However, as indicated by the above numbers, Taiwan should make
more efforts to promote cross-Straits communication.
The survey also shows that 98 percent of the interviewees want
to travel to Taiwan.
Some 84 percent expressed that it was a pity that the Taiwan
authorities had turned down the mainland's offer of giant
pandas.
(China.org.cn by Wang Ke April 25, 2006)
