Taiwan and China are expected to ink agreements for direct sea links and chartered cargo flights in late October or early November, a senior official at the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said yesterday.
SEF Secretary-General Kao Koong-lian (高孔廉) told reporters that the talks between the foundation and its Chinese counterpart — the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) — had been suspended because of the Beijing Olympics.
Kao made the remarks in Taipei while attending a forum organized to discuss strategies on building Taiwan into a regional financial center.
As the SEF and ARATS agreed during the last talks in Beijing to place four issues high on the agenda of the next round of negotiations, Kao said he expected to see the two agencies reach a consensus and sign agreements on direct sea links and chartered cargo flights when they meet next time.
As for new aviation routes and destinations, Kao said it was unnecessary to sign any new agreement because they could be added to the agreement signed last time.
After a decade-long break, both sides of the Taiwan Strait resumed talks this year and signed agreements in mid-June to begin regular weekend charter flights from July 4 and allow more Chinese tourists to visit Taiwan starting from July 18.
The weekend charter flight services cover five Chinese cities and will later be expanded to include six more.
Both sides agreed they would negotiate as soon as possible on the air route and air traffic control procedures to allow the charters to fly “direct routes.” Before more direct air routes are agreed upon, the charter flights are required to detour through Hong Kong air space before heading to their destinations.
The agreements also said that negotiations on cross-strait chartered cargo flights would be held within three months of the start of the weekend passenger services.
On tourism, both sides agreed that Chinese tourists must come and leave in groups, with the daily cap initially set at 3,000. The number would be adjusted in the second year based on market demand.
Taiwan opened its door for group tours by Chinese who arrived via a third country in 2002, as well as relaxing its restrictions regarding overseas Chinese.
Meanwhile, Vice President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) told the forum yesterday that Taiwan stood a good chance of becoming a financial center in the Asia-Pacific region.
Siew said that although Taiwan started late, the opportunity was there because the country had many advantages, including its location, high-tech industry, creativity and innovation, abundant capital and outstanding management talent.
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