A new round of cross-Strait talks between the Chinese Mainland and Taiwan will kick off on Thursday. The meeting is expected to focus on the signing of an investment protection and promotion agreement, and a customs cooperation agreement.
The parties will also discuss the performance of existing deals, and the possible fields of cooperation to be explored in the future.
This is the 8th round of cross strait talks. The meeting is being held under the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, which started in 2010. More investment agreements between the Chinese Mainland and Taiwan are expected as a way to strengthen economic ties.
As of March 2012, tariff reductions under the ECFA had reached 225 million US dollars. This was highly praised by Chairman of Straits Exchange Foundation, Chiang Pin-Kung.
Chiang Pin-Kung said, "It brings benefits to producers of most industrial products of medium-sized and small enterprises in central and south Taiwan."
ECFA has dramatically improved the investment environment in Taiwan. As the tariffs on the exports from Taiwan to the Chinese Mainland are very low, foreign companies are seeing growing attraction in investing in Taiwan.This has also boosted Taiwan’s already high employment rate.
Chiang Pin-Kung said, "There’s been about 250 million US dollars invested by Chinese Mainland companies since June 2009. That creates jobs for around five thousand people in Taiwan."
But Chiang also reminded that Taiwan still needs to create more oppotunities to draw mainland investments.
