The Honorary Chairman of the Chinese Kuomintang Party (KMT), Lien Chan, paid a visit to northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on Wednesday, voicing hopes to strengthen economic and trade cooperation between Taiwan and Xinjiang.

Taiwan and Xinjiang have great differences in terms of area and geographical location, but are highly complementary in economy, science and technology and other fields, said Lien while meeting with Wang Lequan, secretary of the Xinjiang Regional Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

"The two sides have lots of opportunities to cooperate in various fields," he said.

Lien said that relevant departments under KMT and CPC have organized a series of economic and trade forums since 2005 discussing extensive and in-depth topics, which is conducive to enhancing the cooperation between the two sides in various areas, such as industry, agriculture, science and technology, and service sectors.

Wang, also a member of the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau, told Lien that Taiwan businesses are welcome to invest in Xinjiang in different areas, including farm produce, tourism, mining, infrastructure construction, hi-tech industries and service industries.

Also Wednesday, a forum on economic and trade cooperation between Taiwan and Hunan, the third of its kind, was held in Yiyang, central China's Hunan Province, with the participation of KMT Vice Chairman Kuan Chung.3

(Xinhua News Agency September 6, 2007)