Forum on cross-Straits industrial cooperation
( 2001-10-21 08:52 ) (8 )

Li Rongrong, minister of the State Economic and Trade Commission (SETC), said that commercial distribution and industrial cooperation across the Taiwan Straits has a prosperous future.

The official made the statement at a forum on cross-straits industrial cooperation, which closed on Saturday in Kunshan City, east China's Jiangsu Province.

Over 700 experts and scholars from the mainland and Taiwan attended the two-day forum and discussed China's industrial structural reform in the 21st century, cross-strait trade relations, challenges and opportunities with its entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), development of globalization in the commerce sector and cross-strait cooperation in hi-tech and software industries.

He noted that the country's economic development has made great progress over the past 20 years, with an annual economic increase of 9.7 per cent.

The country's commodity retail value reached 3,415 billion yuan (US$411 billion) last year, 2.9 times higher than in 1979, when China began reforming and opening up.

Li expects the commodity distribution sector to boom in the next five to ten years and that industrial cooperation with Taiwanese business people and overseas investors will soar in that period.