Trade across Taiwan Strait reaches record high in 2018

The trade volume between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan reached 226.2 billion U.S. dollars last year, a record high, a mainland spokesperson said yesterday.

This was an increase of 13.2 percent year on year, said Ma Xiaoguang, spokesperson of the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, at a regular news briefing held in Beijing.

Taiwan investors’ investment on the mainland was also growing steadily. A total of 4,911 projects were approved over the past year, up 41.8 percent year on year, said Ma. According to Xinhua, Ma said the “mainland was ready to share its development opportunities with compatriots from Taiwan first.”

Official data from the Chinese government indicates that since the launch of the 31 measures of preferential policies for compatriots from Taiwan, more than 2,000 enterprises with investment from Taiwan have enjoyed preferential tax treatment in the mainland and more than 100 enterprises have secured special financial support under programs for industrial transformation and upgrading, green manufacturing and intelligent manufacturing.

While answering a question about the revised individual income tax law, Ma said people from Taiwan working on the mainland had the same rights and obligations as their Hong Kong and Macau peers.

According to Ma, more than 800 residents of Taiwan have obtained professional qualifications in the mainland and over 100 won honorary titles of various types in the mainland last year.

More than 9 million people traveled across the Strait in the past year. Ma added that the mainland had an open attitude towards and was willing to support exchanges among cities across the Taiwan Strait, as long as the participants maintained the right understanding of the nature of relations and city exchanges across the Strait.  MDT/Xinhua