South China province to expand economic, trade ties with Taiwan

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Updated: 2003-02-23 09:57

South China's Guangdong Province, the country's economic powerhouse, plans to expand economic and trade cooperation with Taiwan in the next few years, according to provincial officials.

Tang Bingquan, vice-governor of the province, said investment from Taiwan would remain important for Guangdong for the next few years.

The potential to attract more investment from Taiwan was huge, since only about one quarter of the 80,000 big and medium-sized firms in Taiwan invested in the Chinese mainland, said the vice- governor.

By 2002, actual investment in the province from Taiwan totaled 21.1 billion US dollars, involving 16,000 Taiwanese firms.

Trade between Guangdong and Taiwan generated 22 billion US dollars last year, up 29 percent year on year.

Taiwan has become the biggest source of imports for Guangdong, which handles the most foreign trade of any region on the Chinese mainland.

The vice-governor said 1,305 firms involving Taiwanese capital were set up in 2002 with contractual Taiwanese investment of 3.48 billion US dollars.