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Executive Yuan passes three links amendment

In an attempt to promote the development of tourism in Kinmen and Matsu, the Executive Yuan yesterday gave a conditional green light to people living in Taiwan proper to make stopovers on the two islands before traveling on to China.

Currently, people in Taiwan proper must make time-consuming and costly stopovers in third territories such as Hong Kong and Macau when traveling to China.

However, the "small three links" route, opened in January 2001, allows limited direct transportation between Kinmen and Matsu islands and the southern Chinese port cities of Xiamen and Fuzhou.

Under the Cabinet's plan, a travel agency in Kinmen or Matsu would be granted a quota of Taiwanese tourists it could take to China, equal to the number of Chinese tourists it has traveling through the "links" to visit Penghu.

A condition is attached to the proposal, however: the Taiwanese tourists must spend at least one night in either Kinmen or Matsu.

"We hope to see an increase in tourism to Kinmen and Matsu to facilitate economic development and bring prosperity to people of those regions," Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) said at a Cabinet meeting yesterday.

The proposal will begin a six-month trial on April 1, with the number of tourists traveling from Taiwan to Kinmen set at 600 a day and Matsu limited to 80 a day because of the limited accommodation available on the islands.

According to figures from the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), the average number of Chinese tourists visiting Kinmen was 73 per day last year, with just two per day visiting Matsu.

Chinese tourists are allowed to travel on to Penghu via Kinmen or Matsu, but not to Taiwan proper.

Including residents of Taiwan in the "small three links" framework would "give travel agencies in Kinmen and Matsu an incentive to draw more Chinese tourists," MAC Chairman Chen Ming-tong (陳明通) said at a press conference following the Cabinet meeting.

Currently, the route is only available for people with addresses registered in Kinmen and Matsu for at least six months, businesspeople with operations in China and their employees and family members, veterans originally from China and residents of Fujian Province married to Taiwanese.

The Cabinet also approved an amendment to ensure China-bound Taiwanese businesspeople who didn't register their Chinese investments with the government would not be investigated for possible tax evasion.

The amendment to the Statute Governing the Relations Between People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (兩岸人民關係條例) was seen by the Cabinet as an important measure to encourage businesspeople to declare their unregistered investments with the government.

The avoidance of paying taxes is a major reason why businesspeople would choose to remit unregistered capital out of Taiwan via underground or illegal channels, Chang said.
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