Chinese mainland and Taiwan should enhance the cooperation in agriculture to further promote their economical exchanges, said a Chinese mainland official on Monday.

"Though the Chinese mainland and Taiwan have made great improvement in the agricultural exchanges, the channels for the exchanges are not mature enough to meet the increasing need in this field," said Yu Yongwei, head of the Cross-Strait Association of Agricultural Exchanges, a non-governmental organization.

Yu made the remarks at a symposium on promoting trade in agricultural products across the Taiwan Strait, which is jointly launched by Yu's association and the Beijing-based Cross-strait Association of Agricultural Exchanges in Shanghai.

"Apart from holding symposiums and trade fairs and increasing visits, we should establish a closer relationship with influential farmers organizations in Taiwan to strengthen exchanges on agricultural technologies, production management and products marketing," said Yu.

Yu also said the two sides should expand market access,cut tariffs and non-tariff barriers, and promote liberalization of trade in goods and services. He added that the mainland should simplify the procedures for examining and approving operations of Taiwan's agricultural businesses in the mainland.

The mainland has established a dozen of "pilot zones" in the provinces of Fujian, Hainan, Shandong, Heilongjiang and Shaanxi for Taiwan agricultural companies to make investment.

Nearly 5,000 Taiwan agricultural companies have invested in the mainland, involving 3 billion US dollars from Taiwan, according to the latest statistics from the Ministry of Commerce.

Source: Xinhua