Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Lin Join-sane (林中森) yesterday said he regretted that people have not felt the benefits of improved relations with Beijing and that he hoped to change that in the future.
Lin said at a cross-strait competitiveness forum in Taipei that a top priority for the government is to have people “feel” the gains from relations with China.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) suffered a massive defeat in local elections on Nov. 29 because of what many interpreted as the inability of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration to have people “feel” the direct benefits of its policies.
There was also the perception among some voters that the Ma’s government has moved too close to China and that gains from closer relations with Beijing have been concentrated in the hands of big conglomerates.
Yet tangible progress in relations with China has been made, Lin said, adding that 8 million people now travel between the two nations per year.
There are now 840 direct flights between Taiwan and China per week — compared with zero prior to 2008 — and more than 90,000 Taiwanese businesses operating in China, with bilateral trade totaling US$174.7 billion a year, Lin said.
Since Ma took office in 2008, Taiwan and China have signed 21 agreements, which Lin described as “21 freeways” allowing for more efficient traffic between the two sides.
“Although the trade in services freeway has not opened,” the two sides remain busy on other issues, Lin said, referring to a cross-strait service trade agreement signed with China in June last year that the legislature has yet to ratify.
At the 10th round of cross-strait talks in Taipei in February, the two sides agreed to hold negotiations on a trade in goods pact, environmental protection, aviation safety, double taxation prevention and taxation cooperation, measures to handle disputes and the establishment of reciprocal offices, Lin said.
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