Chang Hsiao-Yan, former secretary general of Taiwan's Nationalist Party, is among the staunchest supporters of direct transportation, trade and mail links between the island and the Chinese mainland.

The indirect charter flight during the Lunar New Year holiday that Chang Hsiao-Yan proposed is being widely hailed as a welcome step forward. Now, with SARS worries abating, he says cross-Straits cargo flights should start in October to cope with the peak export season in the last quarter of the year.

Chang said, "There are two routes for the charter flight. One is to transport goods from Taiwan via Hong Kong or Macao to Guangzhou, or Shenzhen. The other is go via Ryukyu Island to Shanghai or Beijing."

To reduce costs, Chang suggests two-way charter flights, giving airlines on both sides of the Strait to benefit from the expected boom in business. He is also urging business departments on both sides to consider direct cargo flights, given the huge demand. Chang points out though flights linking the mainland and Taiwan were down during the SARS period, the cargo volumes remained the same. Businesses took to chartering larger planes, rather than relying on ordinary passenger services to transport their goods.

(CCTV July 7, 2003)