"I have a special feeling towards Pingtan. I hope that it can be a breakthrough for flourishing cross-Straits relations," Lee Chuan-chiao told the Pingtan Times at the first Pingtan-Taiwan Commodities Trade Fair, held between Nov 18 and 24.

Lee is the president of the Pingtan Yuanju Group - established this year - which is the first foreign-funded conglomerate in Pingtan.

Lee attended the trade fair with dozens of Taiwan's agricultural associations, and he was obviously impressed.

"I couldn't have imagined how fast Pingtan has improved over the past few years," he said. "The hosting of this trade fair is just an epitome of its vigorous growth, which gives us much confidence."

"In terms of building a 'Common Homeland', the priority for Pingtan now is to attract more businessmen from Taiwan and make them understand Pingtan's development and potential," he also said.

Lee added that his next move would involve the construction of a cross-Straits logistics storehouse for farm products in Pingtan. He said that this would facilitate the transfer of imported Taiwan farm products to inland areas including Shanghai and Guangzhou.

Lee also suggested that Pingtan should implement additional preferential policies to attract investment.

Edited by Chen Zhilin and Niva Whyman