Cross-straits Trade RisingTrade between the two sides of the Taiwan Straits has been growing rapidly year by year as statistics show that cross-Straits trade via Hong Kong exceeded US$100 billion between 1995-1999, two times the total amount for the previous five years.Taiwan has gained a surplus of US$116 billion from trade with the mainland, which plays a role in the island's industrial upgrading and economic development, according to sources with the fourth China Fair for International Investment and Trade, which closed Tuesday in the port city of Xiamen. A favorable business environment in the Chinese mainland such as economic strength, social stability and a series of preferential policies, cited by Taiwanese businessmen, has attracted an increasing number of Taiwanese investors. The number of Taiwanese-funded enterprises set up in the mainland in the first half of the year was 1,399, with a contractual Taiwanese capital of US$1.99 billion, a year-on-year growth of 13.65 percent and 31.29 percent, respectively. The more than 45,000 Taiwanese-funded enterprises now operating in the mainland involve a combined contractual Taiwanese investment of US$45.75 billion, of which US$24.89 billion has been actually used. Since Taiwanese businessmen set up their first enterprise in the mainland in 1983, they have put into the mainland more than half of their investments made out of the Taiwan island. Li Bingcai, deputy director of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said that the development of cross-Straits economic exchanges and cooperation is in the best interest of the people on both sides of the Taiwan Straits. "It is the consistent policy of the mainland to encourage Taiwan compatriots to invest in the mainland, and to protect their legitimate rights and interests," Li noted. |
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