Fifth Xiamen-Taiwan Trade Fair Opens

5th Xiamen-Taiwan Trade Fair Opens

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The fifth Xiamen-Taiwan Export Fair opened in Xiamen City, in east China's Fujian Province, Thursday.

Present at the opening were He Luli, vice chairperson of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and, Zhang Kehui, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

Beginning this year, the title of the fair was changed to the " Cross-Straits (Machinery and Electronic Goods) Trade Fair", because machinery and electronic products have made up an increasingly large part of cross-Straits trade recently.

Last year, machinery and electronic goods accounted for 46.75 percent or US$14.27 billion worth of the goods, traded between Taiwan and Xiamen.

This year, the fair comprises 1,265 booths, an increase of 58 percent over the previous year. More than 3,500 overseas businessmen are attending the fair which has attracted 740 mainland firms and 288 companies from Taiwan.

In an interview with Xinhua, Zhu Yayan, mayor of the host city, said that Xiamen should make full use of the city's geographical advantage with the island province across the Taiwan Straits.

In 2000, Xiamen and Taiwan traded goods worth US$1.2 billion and in the first three months of this year, the figure reached US$300 million.

Xiamen has hosted the annual event, now the largest industrial exposition between the island province and the mainland of China, since 1997.