Beijing has decided to provide special loans to small- and medium-sized
Taiwan-funded enterprises on the mainland in a financial programme to woo
businesses from the island.
Chen Yunlin, minister of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, made
the remark on Friday during a meeting with a delegation of Taiwan's opposition
Kuomintang (KMT).
"We will encourage commercial banks to offer special credits" to agricultural
firms as well as small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) funded by Taiwan
investors on the mainland, Chen said.
The mainland government has always paid great attention to the financial
needs of Taiwan enterprises on the mainland, he added.
Sources said the Taiwan Affairs Office is due to sign an agreement with the
Beijing-based Huaxia Bank on Monday to help ease the financial shortage of some
Taiwan SMEs.
The programme consists of a special credit fund and preferential loan
policies for these firms.
The latest economic sweetener came after the China Development Bank, one of
the mainland's three policy banks, offered 30 billion yuan (US$3.75 billion) in
loans to Taiwan investors last September.
Chen said the mainland would further enhance exchanges and communication with
the KMT to strengthen cross-Straits economic links.
"We will make concrete efforts to safeguard the interests of Taiwan
compatriots and promote their businesses on the mainland," he told the KMT
delegation.
Delegation head Tseng Yung-chuan, director of the KMT's "central policy
committee," welcomed the mainland move.
The financial support will help these firms "upgrade their production and
sharpen their competitive edge," he told reporters at a later press conference.
Despite political tensions, cross-Straits economic ties have grown stronger
over the past two decades.
By the end of 2005, Taiwan investors had funded 68,095
projects on the mainland, with contract investment of US$89.69 billion. Trade
volume between the two sides reached US$91.23 billion last year, with the
mainland being Taiwan's biggest export market and largest source of trade
surplus.
