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MAC amends regulations on China-to-Taiwan travel

"The first two trials were approved by the government during Chinese Lunar New Year and Tomb- sweeping day respectively...

Hsi Hwei-yo, Straits Exchange Foundation secretary-general

The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has amended regulations to allow Taiwanese businesspeople to apply to travel from China to Taiwan via Kinmen and Matsu, Straits Exchange Foundation Secretary-General Hsi Hwei-yo (許惠祐) announced yesterday.

After two successful trial runs allowing businesspeople to return from China to Taiwan, Hsi said that the guidelines used for the tests will be used for future cases.

"The first two trials were approved by the government during Chinese Lunar New Year and Tomb-sweeping day respectively, to test cross-strait links," Hsi said.

Hsi stressed that the SEF has tried to facilitate a relaxation of the measures for over the past two years because businesspeople have stressed that the measure would halve the price of travel to Fujian Province if they didn't have to return home via Hong Kong.

"Since the `small three links' had been launched earlier this year, the successful approval of the two previous cases persuaded the government to amend those regulations," Hsi added.

The third test case begins today, when more than 300 businesspeople and their dependents will return to Taiwan from China via Kinmen and Matsu for the Dragon Boat Festival, which falls on Saturday.

Under the direct trade and transport links allowed by the government between Kinmen and Matsu and China's Fujian Province, only those who are registered residents of the two offshore islands can travel directly back and forth across the Taiwan Strait.

Otherwise, Taiwan residents will still have to travel to China via Hong Kong and Macau.

Taiwanese businesspeople, responding to a survey taken in March, said that they would welcome the measure.
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