Left: Chiang Pin-kung, chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation, speaks to the press as he heads for the VIP departure lounge at the Taoyuan International Airport near Taipei yesterday. Right: Wang Zhifa, vice chairman of Beijing-based National Tourism Administration, arrives at the same airport with his entourage later yesterday. CNA

TAIPEI: A media delegation led by Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Chiang Pin-kung departed yesterday for the mainland for a five-day visit.

The group comprises executives from 15 Taiwanese news media outlets and has a total of 25 members, including officials of the SEF and Mainland Affairs Council.

In Beijing, the group is expected to visit the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television and the General Administration of Press and Publication and also call on major State media, including China Daily, Xinhua news agency and China Central Television.

The delegates will head to Shanxi Friday before returning to Taiwan Sunday.

Chiang said that during the visit, he will also meet with Wang Yi, director of the Taiwan Affairs Office, and Chen Yunlin, president of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS).

The SEF and ARATS are semi-official intermediary bodies set up respectively by Taiwan and the mainland to deal with cross-Straits affairs for the interim.

The fourth round of talks between Chiang and Chen will take place in December in Taichung, when they are expected to sign four agreements regarding fishing crew cooperation, agricultural quarantine inspection, industrial product standards, inspection and certification, and the avoidance of double taxation.

According to Chiang, officials of SEF and ARATS will step up their preparatory work in the remaining time to hammer out the texts of the agreements to facilitate their signing.

Meanwhile, a mainland tourism delegation, headed by National Tourism Administration Vice Chairman Wang Zhifa, arrived in Taiwan yesterday for a cross-Straits travel fair that is scheduled to open October 30 in Taipei.

Upon arrival at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Wang said that the delegation is the biggest ever from the mainland to attend a travel fair in Taiwan.

The mainland group is composed of 486 representatives of 308 different tourism offices in provinces, administrative regions and cities, and travel agencies throughout the mainland, Wang noted.

He expressed the hope that the delegation's participation in the fourth Cross-Straits Taipei Travel Fair will help boost cross-Straits exchanges and cooperation in the travel industry.

The travel fair - jointly organized by the Taiwan Visitors Association and the Beijing-based Cross-Straits Tourism Exchange Association (CTEA) - will be held in conjunction with the 2009 Taipei International Travel Fair at the Taipei World Trade Center October 30-November 2.

Wang is heading the delegation in his capacity as CTEA deputy chairman.

Li Weiyi, chief of Department of Exchange under the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council in Beijing, is also part of the group.

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 10/29/2009 page2)