Mainland to continue support for Taiwan businesses

The Chinese mainland's Taiwan affairs chief said on Tuesday that the mainland will continue to support Taiwanese businesses that invest on the mainland. Wang Yi, director of the Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, called on Taiwanese entrepreneurs to proceed with confidence, acknowledging their contributions to the mainland's economic development in the past. The mainland's policies toward Taiwan will be consistent and stable,Wang, who is also head of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, told Taiwanese business representatives attending a symposium held in the city of Zaozhuang in east China's Shandong province. The focus of cross-strait economic cooperation, both now and in the near future, will be on the implementation of a cross-strait investment protection pact signed in August, as well as expediting financial cooperation between the two sides, he said. Wang also stressed the importance of accelerating follow-up talks for the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), a wide-ranging cross-strait economic pact signed in 2010, as well as office exchanges between the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS). Founded in 1990 and 1991, respectively, the SEF and the ARATS are non-governmental organizations authorized by Taiwan and the mainland to engage in talks regarding cross-strait issues.