The Chinese mainland will take further measures to boost economic cooperation with Taiwan in an joint effort to cope with the global economic downturn, a senior official said Thursday.

The comment came from Wang Yi, director of the State Council (cabinet) Taiwan Affairs Office, at the opening ceremony of the Chongqing-Taiwan Week in the southwest municipality.

He said there would be talks about cooperation in the telecommunications, semiconductor lighting and wind power sectors.

Kuomintang Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung

The Communist Party of China Central Committee general secretary Hu Jintao said during a meeting with Kuomintang Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung in Beijing Tuesday that jointly tackling the impact of the global downturn was the top priority of both sides.

According to Wang, the Chinese mainland and Taiwan have already discussed the potential for cooperation in Chinese traditional medicine, solar energy and auto electronic products.

The mainland will organize seven to nine buying teams to Taiwan between May and September to help develop the island economy during the global downturn.

The official also said the mainland would encourage more of its citizens to visit Taiwan, estimating that the total number of mainland tourists to the island this year would exceed 600,000.

The mainland also encouraged more Taiwan enterprises to operate in the mainland and would offer more financial, tax and technical support, he said.

Wang said the mainland was studying the possibility of establishing an economic cooperation mechanism that will meets the needs of the economic development in both sides of the Taiwan Straits.

"We will try to start talks on a framework pact on cross-Straits economic cooperation in the second half of this year," said Wang.

(Xinhua News Agency May 28, 2009)