The fifth cross-Straits economic, trade and cultural forum has been scheduled for July 11-12 in the Chinese mainland city of Changsha, a mainland spokesman said Wednesday.

The forum, an event staged out of consensus between the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Communist Party of China (CPC), will focus on promoting cross-Straits cultural and educational exchanges and cooperation, said the spokesman from the CPC Central Committee Taiwan Work Office.

A symposium on cross-Straits economic and trade cooperation and a gathering of students from across the Taiwan Straits will also be arranged on the sidelines of the forum, the spokesman said.

The event in the capital of the central province of Hunan is expected to draw some 400 representatives from both the mainland and Taiwan, he said.

Zheng Lizhong, deputy director of the office, was in Taiwan Wednesday to discuss details of the forum with the KMT authorities.

The first such forum was held in April 2006.

(Xinhua News Agency June 10, 2009)