Taipei, March 8 (CNA)
Cooperation between enterprises in Taiwan and China should be mutually beneficial and complement each other , a Taiwan economic official said Thursday, after China proposed further investments in Taiwan.
China would be happy to promote more investments in Taiwan after both sides signed an investment agreement currently being discussed, said Chen Deming, China's commerce minister, a day earlier at a news conference held during the National People's Congress in Beijing.
China understood that Taiwan did not just want investments in the electronics and manufacturing sectors, Chen said, adding that Beijing was organizing a group of local enterprises to visit Taiwan for the purpose.
In response, Hwang Jung-chiou, Taiwan's vice economic minister, said industrial collaboration across the Taiwan Strait should be discussed on the premise of respecting each other's existing development strengths to ensure both sides could benefit.
He said it it would be better for both sides to cooperate in different areas that would allow them to complement each other.
Negotiations on the cross-strait investment protection pact, which would allow Chinese investments in Taiwan in more sectors, including manufacturing, services and public construction, were nearly completed, Chao Chien-min, former deputy minister of the Mainland Affairs Council, said on Feb. 8.
The agreement, expected to be inked later this year, will also protect hundreds of thousands of local investors operating on the mainland.
(By Huang Chiao-wen and Kendra Lin)
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