This year’s Cross-Strait CEO Summit (CSCS) is to be held in November in Kinmen as well as Xiamen, China, a summit official said.
CSCS Taiwan secretary-general Steve Chen (陳瑞隆) said it would be the first annual meeting of the non-official organization to be held in cities on both sides of the Taiwan Strait since the program was launched.
The opening ceremony is to be held on Kinmen and the discussions, seminars and closing ceremony are to be held in Xiamen in China’s Fujian Province, Chen said.
However, he declined to reveal the exact dates of the gathering, which is expected to attract a large number of entrepreneurs and experts from the two sides.
CSCS was founded in July 2013 in Taipei and Beijing, to enable cooperation between entrepreneurs on both sides of the Strait and bilateral dialogue on trade and economic development strategies.
Chen said choosing Xiamen as one of the two sites of the conference is based on its position as a starting city for China’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative.
The initiative, proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), focuses on encouraging connectivity and cooperation between the People’s Republic of China and other nations.
It consists of two main components, the land-based “Silk Road Economic Belt” and the ocean-going “Maritime Silk Road.”
CSCS — headed by former vice president and premier Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) — has become one of the leading business groups in Taiwan, with 28 member groups and 186 individual members.
The Chinese side is led by former Chinese vice premier Zeng Peiyan (曾培炎).
It has created seven task forces to promote industrial cooperation across the Strait, focusing on macroeconomics, small, medium-sized and emerging businesses, cultural and creative industries, information technology, household electronics, biotech and healthcare.
CSCS held conferences in Nanjing, China in 2013 and in Taipei in 2014 and last year.
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