Jia underlines cross-Straits cooperation in electronics, biology, agriculture

The Chinese mainland on Friday urged closer cooperation across the Taiwan Straits in the fields of electronics, information industry, photoelectricity, biology and agriculture.

"It is an urgent task for both the mainland and Taiwan to raise their technological level, change their economic growth pattern and enhance their innovation capacity to develop an innovation-oriented economy," said

Jia Qinglin, a top official of the Communist Party of China (CPC), at the opening of a cross-Straits economic and trade forum.

The mainland and Taiwan enjoy huge cooperative potential in research and development, human resources, and the industrialization of technological achievements, said Jia, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

Jia's opinions were shared by Lien Chan, honorary chairman of the Taiwan-based Chinese Kuomintang (KMT) party, who noted at the opening of the forum that the resources of the mainland are curial for the future development of Taiwan's economy.

The economic and trade relationship between the mainland and Taiwan is "very, very close," and it has been proved by the latest statistics from the World Trade Organization, which showed the investment from Taiwan in the mainland reached 58 billion U.S. dollars last year, said Lien.

Taiwan aims to become an island of science and technology as well as a business hub of storage, logistics, finance and marketing of the world. These could not be realized without the resources of the mainland, said Lien, who leads a KMT delegation to attend the two-day forum.

Source: Xinhua