The mainland had approved the establishment of 65,568 Taiwan-funded businesses by the end of May, with the contractual use of Taiwan investment topping 82.77 billion US dollars, a Chinese government official said on Wednesday in Beijing.

"A total of 40.58 billion dollars of Taiwan investment has been actually used," said He Shizhong, director of the economic bureau of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, at a routine press conference.

He also said that by the end of May, indirect trade across the Taiwan Straits totaled 438.2 billion dollars, with 71.5 billion dollars of mainland exports to Taiwan and 366.7 billion dollars of mainland imports from Taiwan.

"The mainland is the biggest export market for Taiwan. The mainland is also the biggest contributor to Taiwan's trade surplus, " said He.

He also mentioned a series of measures taken by the mainland to boost cross-Straits economic exchanges and facilitate the investment of Taiwan businesses on the mainland.

"Thanks to the joint efforts of compatriots on both sides, cross-Straits economic exchanges have developed rapidly and have extended to more areas, while the level of cooperation has kept improving," he said.

According to He, the mainland has set up four "Taiwan investment zones" in the cities of Fuzhou, Xiamen, Xinglin and Jimei, several "cross-Straits science and technology parks" in the cities of Shenyang, Nanjing, Chengdu and Wuhan, "experimental zones for cross-Straits agricultural cooperation" in the provinces of Fujian, Shandong, Hainan, Heilongjiang and Shaanxi, and "parks for Taiwan farmers to start business" in the provinces of Fujian, Shandong, Sichuan and Heilongjiang.

In addition, the mainland has approved the establishment of two Taiwan-funded banks, one Taiwan-funded insurance company, seven representative offices of Taiwan banks, 12 Taiwan-funded securities firms and nearly 30 representative offices of nine Taiwan insurance companies.

A few Taiwan companies have been listed on the mainland stock market, and more are undergoing the approval procedures.

So far, Taiwan ocean-shipping companies have established 38 representative offices, two solely-funded shipping businesses and five joint venture shipping companies on the mainland. Four Taiwan airlines have established four representative offices on the mainland.

He quoted Chinese President Hu Jintao as saying that "the two sides (across the Straits) will both win through cooperation and exchanges", and called on the Taiwan authorities to remove discriminatory restrictions on the mainland and take concrete measures to promote cross-Straits economic exchanges and cooperation and the early realization of direct, two-way and comprehensive "three links" in cross-Straits trade and mail, transportation services.

Source: Xinhua