Yu Xiaosong, chairman of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), said the mainland is willing to open an office in Taiwan for direct trade links.

Stable business exchanges across the Straits should be strengthened, and discussions are under way between trade groups on the mainland and Hong Kong to achieve this, Yu said.

The CCPIT, which has branches in 25 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, expects to make a significant breakthrough in cross-Straits relations when the current political impasse between the two sides ends.

Hong Kong, one of the world's leading financial, trade and transport centers, has for decades functioned as a cornerstone for economic and trade contacts between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan.

An agreement between the mainland and Taiwan to start business contacts was signed in Hong Kong in 1989 by the mainland's Economic and Trade Co-ordinating Committee for the Two Sides of the Straits and Taiwan's Commercial Co-ordinating Committee for the Two Sides of the Straits.

The first Taiwanese business delegation to visit the mainland, a 600-strong group, made an exchange trip the following year.

Yu, also chairman of the China Chamber of International Commerce, said the Economic and Trade Co-ordinating Committee for the Two Sides of the Straits would open an office in Taiwan.

However, Yu stressed direct trade links could only be established after Taiwan dismantled policy barriers and also permitted direct postal and transport links.

"Whether the mainland can open the office depends on Taiwan, which should abandon dogmatism and embrace the one-China principle as soon as possible," Yu said.

Yu also talked about China's trade with other countries.

For decades the CCPIT has succeeded in promoting relations with numerous countries and regions by improving business ties. It now has overseas links with 170 countries and regions.

Yu said he expected that with joint efforts by the CCPIT and Hong Kong, major business exchanges and cooperation programmes with various countries would be held every year in either Beijing or Hong Kong.

Hong Kong businessmen will also be encouraged to invest more in China's western regions, Yu said.

He said overseas investors would get full support from the government if they helped construct infrastructure projects in the west.

The CCPIT is planning a string of high-profile economic and trade activities that will gather together top businessmen and senior government officials from numerous countries to help improve relations between China and the rest of the world.

These events include a Sino-American CEO Round Table Summit scheduled for April next year in Beijing and a Sino-American seminar on infrastructure construction and economic and trade links, also to be held next year in the United States.

The summit, jointly organized by the CCPIT and the American Chamber of Commerce, will unveil co-operation on a wide-range of projects in information technology, finance and banking, agriculture, environmental protection and power generating.

These contacts are expected to signal the start of greater links between China and the USA which should follow the US Senate's approval of permanent normal trade relations with China.

Yu said he expected Sino-US business relations to develop further from this new platform.

(China Daily 09/25/2000)