Kinmen County Commissioner Chen Fu-hai (陳福海) met with Xiamen Deputy Mayor Ni Chao (倪超) on Tuesday in the Taiwanese county to discuss ways to improve bilateral exchanges in tourism and trade.
Ni led a delegation from the southeastern Chinese city to Kinmen to learn more about economic development there and meet with Kinmen officials.
During the meeting, the two sides discussed issues such as making adjustments to ferries between Kinmen and Xiamen, promoting Kinmen tourism, streamlining procedures for issuing travel permits and allowing Kinmen tour guides to work in Xiamen.
The two sides also addressed trade issues, such as the regulations on investment in Kinmen and Xiamen, which are just a few kilometers apart.
A hub in the Taiwan Strait, Kinmen plays an important role in the peaceful development of relations across the Taiwan Strait, the Kinmen County Government said.
In May last year, a meeting between Taiwanese and Chinese heads of cross-strait affairs agencies was held in Kinmen. Two months later, Kinmen signed an agreement with China’s Fujian Province to pipe water from Fujian to Kinmen.
In an effort to boost development in Kinmen, Chen led a delegation to Beijing in December last year to call on officials of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office and the China National Tourism Administration to propose plans to boost tourism and trade exchanges between Kinmen and Xiamen.
Kinmen has turned from a front-line military garrison to the vanguard of cross-strait exchanges, Chen said, urging leaders in Taiwan and China to think positively about the development of relations across the Strait.
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