The highest-ranking Chinese official to visit Taiwan since an historic trade pact came into effect, met with the minister of finance yesterday.
Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce Chen Jian (陳健) led a 30-member delegation to Taipei on Saturday and visited Minister of Finance Lee Sush-der (李述德).
“The two sides have agreed to use wisdom to solve problems during the initial phase of implementation of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement [ECFA],” Chen was quoted by CNA yesterday.
Chen met Lee at a banquet hosted by the Taiwan Asset Management Co (TAMC, 台灣金聯資產管理), in which representatives from both sides vowed to increase economic and trade cooperation and exchange.
Both sides also agreed to step up cooperation in asset management area, with a long-term goal of establishing a joint asset management venture in the third place, the CNA reported, citing unnamed sources.
Chen said on Saturday that he has “three major tasks” to achieve during this trip, the main one being to promote direct sales of Taiwan’s agricultural products to China.
At a banquet hosted by Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Francis Liang (梁國新), who also serves as vice chairman of the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會), Chen said the second task was to find more suitable ways to facilitate cross-strait trade cooperation and for Taiwan and China to jointly access other markets.
Thirdly, he said he hoped to see the ECFA benefit more people, particularly the large number of small and medium-sized enterprises and fishermen’s and farmers’ associations.
With the ECFA taking effect on Sept. 12, bilateral cooperation will be closer, Chen said, adding that he is in Taiwan to learn more about its investment environment.
The delegation is scheduled to visit major Taiwanese enterprises in northern and central Taiwan and attend a conference on cross-strait business strategies today.
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