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)