The cross-Straits economic and trade forum, a major event in
exchanges between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan, opened Friday
morning in Beijing.
Senior Chinese leader Jia Qinglin and honorary chairman of the KMT
Lien Chan made speeches at the opening ceremony, both calling for
making joint efforts for win-win economic cooperation to benefit
compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Straits.
"It has become the common aspiration of compatriots of both
sides and the universal expectation of the international community
to promote peaceful and steady development of cross-Straits
relations," said Jia Qinglin, a member of the Standing Committee of
the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central
Committee
For that purpose, said Jia, it's important to concretely start
with beefing up cross-Straits economic exchanges and cooperation,
which conforms to the common interest of compatriots on both
sides.
Jia, who is also chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative
Conference, called for removing artificially installed
obstacles and political intervention to continuously push forward
the frontiers of cross-Straits economic exchanges and
cooperation.
Jia proposed adopting practical and flexible measures to push
forward direct air and sea links, first starting with
mainland-bound Taiwan agricultural goods and then expanding to more
areas.
He said the mainland and Taiwan could also strengthen division
of labor and cooperation in IT, photoelectricity, biological and
agricultural industries and jointly create independent
technological standards and international brands of the Chinese
people.
Speaking of cooperation mechanism, Jia proposed adopting
flexible practices of promoting region to region, people to people,
industry to industry and business to business cooperation.
Jia called for beefing up dialogue, mutual trust and pooling
wisdom through the cross-Straits economic and trade forum, adding
forums on culture exchanges and on peaceful development could also
be held to discuss other issues of concern to Taiwan
compatriots.
Jia noted the risk and danger of Taiwan leader attempting to
seek "de jure independence" of Taiwan through constitutional reform
is escalating and said to safeguard the fundamental interests of
compatriots of both sides of the Strait, "We will never tolerate
'Taiwan independence'".
Lien Chan said the booming trade across the Taiwan Straits had
played a key role in Taiwan's economic growth over the past six
years. Meanwhile, Taiwan's economy has lost some good opportunities
because of restriction of cross-Straits economic and trade
cooperation, imposed by the Taiwan authorities.
The opening of the mainland market helped Taiwan maintain an
annual economic growth of 3.57 percent in the past six years
despite dwindling demand and declining consumption on the island,
said Lien.
He said the development of the Chinese mainland should not be
demonized or smeared, or regarded it as a threat. The mainland
provides market for countries like the United States and Japan,
which helps them to raise production efficiency and people's
purchasing power, relieve their deficit or economic stress, and
channel their investment into high value-added industries.
Lien criticized Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party for
its political policy that has severely conflicted with the public
demand to push forward Taiwan's economic development.
"This makes Taiwan lose the momentum of further economic
growth," he said.
Regional economic cooperation and the rise of China are two
inevitable trends, said Lien. In the face of the trends, people
should seriously think over the development road of Taiwan's
economy and push forward cross-Straits economic and trade relations
to avoid being marginalized in regional economic integration in
Asia.
The two-day forum, jointly organized by institutions under the
CPC and the KMT, is part of the effort to implement consensus
reached during the historic meeting last April between General
Secretary of the CPC Central Committee Hu Jintao and Lien Chan, who was KMT Chairman
at that time. The current session focuses on cross-Straits economic
and trade exchanges and direct transport links.
More than 500 people, including officials from the CPC, KMT,
People First Party and New Party and economic experts and
businesspeople, attended the forum.
The event attracted much media attention as more than 400
reporters from over 120 news organizations are in Beijing to cover
the forum.
(Xinhua News Agency April 15, 2006)