A delegation of the Taiwan Financial Services Roundtable (TFSR) held talks yesterday with Taiwanese businessmen operating in China and Beijing officials to gain a better understanding of the current economic state of China and the kind of financial services Taiwanese businesses need.ACCELERATE
The 40-member group, headed by TFSR chairman Shea Jia-dong (許嘉棟), arrived in Beijing on Sunday to convey hopes that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait accelerate financial cooperation.
The visitors are also expected to investigate the possibility of the two sides signing a memorandum of understanding on financial supervision cooperation, as the issue has been put on the planned agenda of a third meeting between Straits Exchange Foundation Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) and his Chinese counterpart, Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林), scheduled for May.
EXCHANGES
Shea, who holds a doctorate in economics from Stanford University, told Taiwanese reporters before yesterday’s workshop that cross-strait exchanges in the financial sector had not been frequent in the past.
The TFSR, therefore, wants to convey the hope that the Chinese authorities will step up their pace in opening China’s financial market for cross-strait exchanges or transactions, he said.
Shea is a former minister of finance and was deputy governor of the Central Bank of China, said he hoped China would allow Taiwanese banks to open branches in China without having to set up representative offices first.
He also expressed the hope that China would allow Taiwanese bank branches to deal in yuan in China.
SHANGHAI
The TFSR delegation will visit the China Banking Regulatory Commission and the China Insurance Regulatory Commission in Beijing before traveling to Shanghai next Wednesday.
It is scheduled to return to Taiwan on Feb. 20.
The TFSR was founded in 2005, following the model of the US-based Financial Services Roundtable with the goal of promoting the development of Taiwan’s financial sector and improving its international competitiveness.
It now comprises 100 members who are mostly top executives of 18 financial institutes in Taiwan.
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