Senior Chinese officials have responded with goodwill on several major issues of concern to Taiwan such as easier financing for Taiwanese companies in China, Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Lin Join-sane (林中森) said late on Sunday.
Upon his return from his maiden visit to China, Lin said that while meeting with Chinese officials, he had repeatedly called for more assistance for China-based Taiwanese companies.
“During my first-ever visit to China, I met with many Taiwanese businesspeople operating there. A number of them face bottlenecks in technological upgrading, risk control, financing, branding and transforming manufacturing operations into service business,” Lin said.
While some of them looked forward to Taiwanese government’s help, many said they needed Chinese authorities’ assistance to overcome their difficulties, Lin said.
“I have conveyed their requests and opinions to Chinese officials I met over the past few days,” Lin said, adding that the SEF would also continue tracking relevant developments through dialogue with its Chinese counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS).
On the proposal of SEF and ARATS — the two quasi-official cross-strait intermediary bodies — setting up representative offices in each other’s territories, Lin said that Chinese officials agreed with his view that a plan of approach should be outlined to realize the goal as soon as possible.
Chinese authorities promised to continue expanding cross-strait tourism exchanges and to allow more Chinese citizens to make free independent trips to Taiwan, Lin said.
Both sides agreed to cooperate in encouraging Chinese students to study at Taiwan’s science and technology colleges, Lin said.
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