Chinese Kuomintang (KMT) Honorary Chairman Lien Chan visited East China's Jiangsu Province on Friday afternoon and praised the rapid development of the province.

Lien and his wife arrived at Wuxi on Thursday afternoon and was received by Li Yuanchao, Secretary of the CPC Jiangsu Provincial Committee.

Lien thanked Li for his hospitality. "The Mid-autumn festival has just passed and I feel a sense of re-union with old friends," he said. They met during Lien's first visit in April 2005 when he participated in the memorial ceremony for Dr. Sun Yat-sen, China's forerunner of the anti-feudalism revolution, in Nanjing, capital city of Jiangsu.

"A year after Lien's meeting with Chinese Chairman Hu Jintao, economic cooperation between Taiwan and Jiangsu is enhanced," said Li, noting that in the first half of this year alone, Jiangsu attracted an actual investment about 2 billion U.S. dollars from Taiwan. Over 500,000 local people are working in Taiwan enterprises. "We have confidence in peaceful development across the Taiwan Strait and our mutual benefit."

Li hopes to strengthen trade cooperation with Taiwan. "Agriculture in Jiangsu is undergoing a transformation and we are looking forward to cooperation in this field," he said.

This is Lien's fourth visit to the Chinese Mainland. During the visits, he has been to ten provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities.