On April 16, one day after the conclusion of the Cross-Strait Economic and Trade Forum, three central government departments - the National Tourism Administration, Ministry of Public Security and Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council - jointly issued a 17-article regulation for managing the travel of mainland residents to Taiwan.

The regulations stipulate that mainland visitors must tour Taiwan in groups organized by mainland travel agencies that are designated by government departments, while Taiwan travel agencies receiving mainland tourists should also be confirmed by departments on the mainland.

According to a report by the official Xinhua News Agency, the National Tourism Administration and related government departments will adopt a quota system for tourist groups to Taiwan, and the quotas will be given to mainland travel agencies who have signed cooperative contracts with Taiwan counterparts.

The Xinhua report said, "On May 3, 2005 the mainland said it would allow mainland residents to travel to Taiwan in the near future. To date the mainland has got everything ready, and is only awaiting a response from Taiwan for such tours to start."

Topics discussed

Cross-strait agricultural, tourism and financial service exchanges and cooperation, and direct air and shipping links, were hot topics discussed during the two-day forum.

Several keynote speakers noted that the mainland has become Taiwan's largest export market and the largest contributor to Taiwan's trade surplus, while Taiwan is the second largest import market for the mainland. The cross-strait trade volume has grown steadily, said Tang Wei, Vice Chairman of the Association of Economy and Trade Across the Taiwan Strait.

Last year, trade across the Taiwan Strait reached $91.23 billion, up 16.5 percent from the previous year. Of this, $16.55 billion was exported from the mainland to Taiwan, an increase of 22.2 percent compared with 2004, and $74.68 billion was exported from Taiwan to the mainland, up 15.3 percent, according to Tang. He called for a pragmatic attitude toward the realization of the "three direct links," which include direct trade, mail and transport services.

As calculated by Lin Chu-chia, a professor at Taiwan's Chengchi University, during a speech at the forum, about NT $31 billion in costs will be saved if direct links in air and shipping across the Taiwan Strait are realized. Lin said that direct links of air and shipping services will help to save around NT $30 billion and NT $840 million of costs, respectively.

In terms of the agricultural aspect, participants gave much credit to the zero tariff on a number of fruit originated from Taiwan, considering it good news for Taiwan farmers. Wu Torng-chuang, a consultant of the science, technology and economy group of the Taiwan-based National Policy Foundation, said the mainland and Taiwan continue to exchange plant seeds and seedlings. He suggest the mainland increase fruit imports from Taiwan while learning how to deal with agricultural work in a more business-oriented way from the experiences of Taiwanese small farmers.

Cooperation in the financial service sector is another hot issue at the forum, since China will fully open its financial markets by the end of 2006, according to its World Trade Organization commitments.

Song Fengming, a professor at Tsinghua University's School of Economics and Management, said that current cross-strait financial exchanges do not provide the necessary financial services for business and trade across the Taiwan Strait. The lack of a communication platform and different standards in statistics and accounting, as well as different financial regulations, are all obstacles to cross-strait financial cooperation, Song said. But he added that the biggest problem is obstacles created by Taiwan's leaders.

Ba Shusong, Deputy Director of the Finance Research Institute of the Development Research Center of the State Council, pointed out in his speech that there is an imbalance in the opening-up of cross-strait financial sectors. According to Ba, by the end of 2005 the mainland had approved seven bank offices from Taiwan, two joint-venture banks with Taiwan, 15 offices of 11 Taiwan insurances firms, one insurance broker company and one insurance joint venture. But Taiwan was too rigid on giving mainland financial institutions the go-ahead to open offices on the island, he added.

In 2003, the mainland gave approval to four banks, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, China Merchants Bank, Industrial Bank Co., Ltd. and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Hong Kong, to set up offices in Taiwan, but no substantial progress has been made since then because of strict measures taken by Taiwan, Ba said.

These issues, discussed at the forum, aren't only a business matter between the CPC and KMT, but a weightier one that concerns people living on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, said Lien Chan in a press release after the forum.

Second Hu-Lien meeting

A year after Lien Chan's ice-breaking visit to the mainland last April and his first-ever meeting with President Hu, the two met again in Beijing following the forum.

Commenting on developments since their last meeting, Lien gave examples in the economic sector over the past year, such as the expanded chartered flight service during the Chinese Spring Festival, the export of Taiwan's agricultural products to the mainland market, the establishment of a mechanism to solve problems for Taiwan business people operating on the mainland, and efforts for standardization between Taiwan and mainland China's information technology sectors, according to an official Xinhua report.

During their recent meeting, Hu made four suggestions on the peace and development of cross-strait relations. He said that the "1992 Consensus," which refers to the common belief that both the mainland and Taiwan belong to one China, is the foundation for peace and development across the Taiwan Strait.

"It's the ultimate goal to seek interest for the people across the Taiwan Strait when we are working for peaceful development in cross-strait relations," said Hu, as his second suggestion.

He added that a mutually complementary and beneficial relationship is the effective way to realize peaceful development, and equal consultation is the only way to achieve peaceful development across the Taiwan Strait.

"Cross-strait relations are now in a seesaw struggle between peace and opening-up on one side, and conflicts and closure on the other," said Lien Chan in his meeting with Hu. He called on both Taiwan and the mainland to work toward unity, peace and opening-up.

According to Xinhua, Lien praised the 15 new policies to promote cross-strait economic and trade relations, saying that they create opportunities for brighter prospects. "The key problem is how to enable the Taiwanese people to enjoy the benefits of booming economic growth in the face of a crisis of 'marginalization' due to several years of self-closure in the island," Lien emphasized.