Taiwan authorities have again been urged to allow direct air and shipping services across the Taiwan Straits to facilitate the increasingly frequent traffic of people and goods between the mainland and the island.

Participants made the call on the final day of the two-day Cross-Straits Economic and Trade Forum in Beijing on Saturday.

They pledged to work together to push forward the issue, to make current cross-Straits chartered flights more convenient and to ensure flights operate on a regular basis, during festivals and at weekends.

Speaking at the forum, Lin Chu-Chia, a professor from Taiwan's ChengChi University, said: "If the direct links of air and shipping services across the Taiwan Straits can be realized, at least 31 billion NT dollars (US$1 billion) of cost will be saved annually."

He added that the huge costs brought by indirect flights and shipments make it impossible for Taiwan to become a regional economic centre, and reduce the island's potential for external investment.

The honorary chairman of Taiwan's main opposition party Kuomintang (KMT), Lien Chan, told forum delegates that it took him eight and a half hours to fly from Taipei to Beijing, far longer than a direct two-hour flight.

Li Jiaxiang, president of the mainland's major carrier Air China, based in Beijing, said he hoped direct flights between Taiwan and the mainland could be operational as soon as possible.

(China Daily April 17, 2006)