Political advisors have proposed that a "cross-Straits economic zone" be built to better link Taiwan to the mainland's coastal provinces.

Thanks to warming ties across the Straits, such a zone would boost regional integration and is in line with globalization, said Yang Jian, vice-chairman of Taiwan Democratic Self-Government League, one of the eight non-Communist parties on the mainland.

"We need to intensify infrastructure investment to better connect Taiwan and the mainland's major economic areas such as the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta," Yang, a member of the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, told a plenary session yesterday.