The Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Kuomintang (KMT), the
leading opposition party in Taiwan, reached a series of agreements
yesterday to better protect the rights of Taiwan investors on the
mainland.
The two sides reached the 10-article agreements, which cover
areas such as combating crime and protecting intellectual property
rights (IPR), at yesterday's third work conference on the
protection of Taiwan investors on the mainland.
The agreements stress the importance of protecting Taiwan
investors.
Both sides agreed to set up a mechanism under which the
concerned parties in Taiwan are notified should a Taiwan
businessman become entangled in legal proceedings on the mainland.
They also worked out a way to allow the relatives of the parties
involved to visit them during the investigation.
And they decided to cooperate and communicate more to fight
crime.
The two sides will also speed up the certification and
accreditation process for electronic and information technology
products, most likely to facilitate Taiwan's exports of such
products to the mainland.
The two sides also agreed to increase exchanges in the area of
IPR.
Chen Yunlin, director of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State
Council, said the conference gives Taiwan investors a mechanism to
solve their problems and also increases communications between the
two sides.
The two previous conferences yielded 20 agreements, which played
a positive role in protecting Taiwan investors on the mainland,
Chen said.
KMT Vice-Chairman Chiang Pin-kung said Taiwan businessmen had
experienced problems because of the different trade regulations on
the mainland.
"The mechanism came into being to bring these problems forward
and arouse the mainland authorities' attention," Jiang said.
He said the problems were recurring ones related to policy, the
law and individual experiences on the mainland.
At present, there are about 1 million Taiwan investors on the
mainland.
"We hope the agreements can be fulfilled one by one," said Chang
Han-wen, chairman of the Association of Taiwanese-invested
Enterprises on the Mainland, the first national-level association
of Taiwan-funded enterprises.
Tang Yi, director of the complaints coordination bureau of the
Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said the bureau had
received more than 900 complaints from Taiwan investors since its
inception in 2005 and about 70 percent have been properly dealt
with.
(China Daily July 26, 2007)