The Kinmen County Government and the private sector urged the central government yesterday to ease entry regulations on Chinese visitors to benefit the people of the outlying offshore island.
Kinmen County Commissioner Lee Chu-feng (李炷烽) called for first forging a consensus among local residents before putting forward the request to the central government. He suggested that the current "mini links" be expanded and tourists from China be allowed to boost the local economy.
The "mini links" refer to the direct trade and transport ties between Taiwan's Kinmen and Matsu islands and the ports of Xiamen and Fuzhou in the Chinese province of Fujian.
Lee made the remarks at a Labor Day celebration in which scores of model employees were cited amid rounds of enthusiastic applause from nearly 1,000 workers taking part in the activity.
Lee said that the good old days when a large number of troops stationed on the island could sustain a good economy were gone, and that the "mini links" were now the only hope for the island's economy.
For instance, Lee said, the Kinmen economy was dealt a heavy blow when the "three small links" were closed during the SARS outbreak in the first half of last year. Passenger loads on the Kinmen-Taiwan routes were only about 20 percent of their normal levels during that period, he said.
Chen Lee-yuan (
A one-way outflow of Kinmen visitors to China would only have a negative impact on the Kinmen economy, harming the livelihood of the local workers and residents, she said.
She contended that Kinmen County should relay this viewpoint to the central government and ask it to open the door to Chinese visitors to Kinmen to better take care of the Kinmen people.
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