Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng (韓正), who arrived in Taipei yesterday morning to attend a forum on city-to-city exchanges, announced the open exchange of the Chinese yuan and the New Taiwan dollar in Shanghai prior to the launch of the World Expo on May 1.
This service will be available at the Bank of Communications in Shanghai until the end of the expo on Oct. 31 as a convenience for visitors from Taiwan, Han said at the Taipei-Shanghai Forum held at the Formosa Regent Hotel, adding that the city will work to continue the service in Shanghai after the expo.
Han and Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) also promised to speed up the launch of direct flights between Taipei’s Songshan and Shanghai’s Hongqiao airports.
Direct flights between the airports, one of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) election campaign promises, are scheduled to start in October. Han said the two sides were working to bring forward the launch date, possibly to July.
“It took me only 80 minutes to fly from Shanghai to Taipei, faster than I thought. Direct flights lay a great foundation for more cross-strait exchanges and we will push the service as soon as possible,” Han said.
In signing memorandums of understanding (MOU) on cultural, travel, scientific and environmental protection exchanges between Taipei and Shanghai, Hau said he expected the forum to normalize the development of exchanges between the two cities.
“Taipei and Shanghai are major cities in Taiwan and China and I expect city-to-city exchanges to create a win-win situation for the two in the coming decades,” Hau said.
The signing of the MOUs had been approved by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) as there were no political items included.
The two mayors also used the occasion to promote the Shanghai Expo next month and Taipei International Flora Expo in November. Hau will fly to Shanghai on April 30 to attend the opening of the expo’s Taipei Hall on May 1.
Han said Shanghai plans to send a delegation to the Flora Expo.
Han and the 200-member Chinese delegation were met by a small-scale protest outside the airport. Led by several Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City council hopefuls, the group shouted “oppose ECFA,” referring to a proposed economic cooperation framework agreement between Taiwan and China, and clashed with police as some tried to enter the airport.
The protesters then followed Han and the Chinese delegation to the hotel where they hung protest banners from the walls.
Hau said the city government respected the protesters’ right to express their opinion, but urged them not to disturb the forum as an excuse to campaign for the upcoming election.
Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Lien Chan (連戰) yesterday hosted a tea party to welcome Han and the Chinese delegation. Han will also meet former KMT chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄), Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) and People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) during his four-day trip.
He will visit the National Palace Museum and the Beitou Incinerator today, as well as take a trip on the mass rapid transit system.
Hau will accompany Han to Taipei 101 and Eslite’s flagship Xinyi bookstore tomorrow before heading to Taipei County and Taoyuan County. He will return to Shanghai on Friday morning.
Speaking about the currency exchange deal, Huang A-wang (黃阿旺), deputy director-general of the central bank’s Department of Foreign Exchange, said yesterday that the yuan-NT dollar exchange to be offered by the Shanghai municipal branch of Bank of Communications next month would have little impact on the local currency.
“Each Taiwanese national can take up to NT$60,000 in cash upon leaving the country,” Huang said by telephone, adding that several local banks in Xiamen, are already allowed to make such exchanges.
Huang said that the decision did not mark a breakthrough in the establishment of a cross-strait currency settlement mechanism.
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