A quasi-official organization founded last year to promote economic and cultural exchanges with Hong Kong is scheduled to hold its second joint meeting with its Hong Kong counterpart tomorrow, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday.
Representatives of the -Taiwan-Hong Kong Economic and Cultural Co-operation Council (ECCC) will meet in Hong Kong with the Hong Kong--Taiwan Economic and Cultural Co--operation and Promotion Council (ECCPC), said the MAC, which oversees the ECCC.
REVIEW
During the one-day meeting, delegates are expected to review progress in economic and cultural cooperation over the past year and discuss cooperation in new areas for the coming year, the MAC said.
ECCC chairman Lin Chen-kuo (林振國) will lead the 20-member delegation, which will also include some of its advisers such as Sun Chen (孫震), an academic, and former vice chairwoman of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Lin Cheng-chih (林澄枝).
Also that day, the ECCC Economic Cooperation Committee will hold a Taiwan-Hong Kong economic and trade forum in Hong Kong, the MAC said.
The ECCC was established in May last year following Hong Kong’s establishment of the ECCPC two months earlier. Lee Yeh-kwong (李業廣) has since served as ECCPC chairman.
FIRST MEETING
The two intermediary bodies held their first joint meeting in Taipei on Aug. 30 last year.
During that meeting, the two sides decided to take turns hosting joint meetings at least once a year and convening additional gatherings whenever needed.
They established principles for communication and interaction between the two sides.
Mainland Affairs Council Minister Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) and Hong Kong Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Stephen Lam (林瑞麟) attended the first ECCC-ECCPC meeting in Taipei.
Hong Kong’s role as a transit hub for people and goods between Taiwan and China has been reduced as a result of warmer cross-strait ties since President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took office in 2008.
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