Trade across the Taiwan Straits totaled 32 billion US dollars in the first nine months of this year and is expected to top 40 billion dollars for the whole year.
Wang Liaoping, director of the Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Department of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, revealed this at a press conference held by the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council in Beijing on Wednesday.
Cross-straits trade had soared from 50 million US dollars in 1978 to 32.3 billion dollars last year, he said.
Taiwan had become the fourth largest trading partner of the Chinese mainland that was also the largest export market for Taiwan, he added.
Investment from Taiwan to the Chinese mainland reached 2.83 billion US dollars in the first nine months of this year, Wang said.
Investment from Taiwan jumped from 150 million US dollars in 1989 to 3 billion dollars last year.
(People’s Daily October 31, 2002)
