Taiwan foresees stable cross-Strait relations
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Taiwan authority's mainland affairs chief, Lai Shin-yuan, said Tuesday that relations between the island and the Chinese mainland would harvest more and become more stable this year.
Lai said at a press conference that the path of cross-Strait institutionalized consultation was "correct with a clear framework and roadmap."
The mainland and Taiwan signed cross-Strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) and two other pacts on intellectual property protection cooperation and medical cooperation last year.
"These agreements have streamlined cross-Strait trade and exchanges and established norms to solve cross-Strait problems," she said.
Lai said the cross-Strait investment protection agreement would become a priority in the ECFA's follow-up negotiations this year. The agreement is expected to be signed in the first half of this year.
"Many breakthroughs were made last year," Lai said, citing that 1.2 million mainland tourists visited the island in 2010, which was twice more than the previous year. Nearly 7 million people from both the mainland and Taiwan traveled across the Strait last year, statistics show.
Statistics also show that the trade value between Taiwan and the mainland and Hong Kong, as a whole, totaled 152.33 billion U.S. dollars last year, up 39.4 percent over 2009.
"All these achievements are concrete results of the cross-Strait agreements," she said. "Taiwan's people will gradually benefit more from the fruits."
