The province approved 547 Taiwanese-funded enterprises in the four-month period, said an official with the provincial Taiwan affairs office.

The southern part of Jiangsu, located in the Yangtze River delta, attracted concentrated investment from Taiwanese business people.

The scenic city of Suzhou, for example, established 301 Taiwanese-funded enterprises in the first four months, involving a contractual Taiwanese investment of 1.34 billion US dollars. The figures accounted for 38 percent and 37 percent of the city's total, respectively. Most of the investment went to the electronic field.

Government statistics show that more than 1,000 Taiwanese-funded enterprises in the province have added a total of 3.5 billion US dollars in investment over last few years.

Jiangsu has so far approved more than 11,700 Taiwanese-funded enterprises, with a total contractual Taiwanese investment of 31 billion US dollars, of which more than 15.5 billion US dollars has been materialized.

(Xinhua News Agency June 2, 2003)