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Favourable Policies Assist Taiwan Businesses

Taiwanese business people on the mainland are set to benefit from favourable new policies revealed following a meeting between mainland and Taiwan political party officials on November 1.

Under a 10-point "common-ground agreement," small- and medium-sized enterprises on the island will be able to get loans from the China Development Bank for their business operations on the mainland, provided their investments are in line with the mainland's industry policies.

In addition, Taiwanese investors will be allowed to run cooperative hospitals with mainland partners, and medical workers from the island will be able to practise on the mainland once they have obtained licenses issued by mainland health authorities.

The 10-point agreement came after talks between Li Bingcai, vice-director of the Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, and a delegation of Taiwan's opposition Kuomintang (KMT) Party led by KMT Vice-Chairman Chiang Pin-kung in Beijing.

During the talks, Li said his office will collaborate with related departments to expand educational channels for children of Taiwanese business people on the mainland to assist their schooling, and they will welcome the KMT party's efforts to organize similar processes the island to allow an exchange of views about investment on the mainland in the fields of finance, insurance and trade.

The Customs office on the mainland will push for the facilitation of entry/exit passes to increase imports and exports, according to the common-ground document. More than one million Taiwan business people work or live on the mainland, sources said.