Aviation and marine industry associations from both sides of the Taiwan Strait may meet in China and Taiwan in mid-September to discuss technical issues relating to transportation links, an association official said yesterday.
Peter Chen (
"We will talk about air traffic control, introduce our respective Flight Information Region [about air traffic in a particular airspace] and other technical and procedural issues," said Chen, whose association has around 250 members.
If the visit is approved by both Taipei and Beijing, it would be the first by members of a Chinese aviation association, Chen said.
Chen stressed that the discussions would be totally unofficial in nature, and wouldn't touch on the sensitive political issue of lifting of the ban on the direct "three links" with China, which, he pointed, were well beyond his authority.
Local media have suggested that Taiwan's impending entry into the WTO and building pressure from the business community could lead to the links being opened by year-end putting the spotlight on the need for cross-strait talks on implementing the policy shift.
The association hopes to invite a delegation from China's Civil Aviation Association (
The discussions, slated for early September, will be the fourth time members of the associations have met since initiating contact in 1998, Chen said.
The meeting on air links across the Strait will be supplemented by a planned visit of around 20 members of Taiwan's Chinese Marine Research Institute (海運研究發展協會) to Shenzhen, where they will hold talks with their counterparts from China's Association for Shipping Across the Taiwan Strait (海峽兩岸航運交流協會), said institute spokesman Yang Chung-tsi (楊中池).
This will be the fifth meeting since such unofficial discussions began in 1992, said Yang, adding that "conclusions reached during the discussions on technical marine issues will be handed to the government for consideration."
"So when the government decides to lift the ban on direct links they will have a technical base upon which to build," he said.
Issues to be discussed at the talks will be developing of marine links after both sides of the Strait enter the WTO, operation of passenger and cargo services at ports in both China and Taiwan, cooperation on search and rescue operations and preventing oil pollution at sea, Yang said.
The Taiwanese delegation will be led by association chief Chen Ting-hui (
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