Officials from the Chinese mainland pledged on Saturday to further open its cultural and educational sectors to Taiwan, part of its drive to facilitate cross-Straits exchanges.

Cai Wu, minister of culture, said in an interview on the sidelines of the fifth Cross-Straits Economic, Trade and Culture Forum that cultural authorities are making policies to encourage and benefit the development of Taiwan's entertainment business on the mainland.

People in the Taiwan entertainment industry would be allowed to run performance venues through jointly investing in or cooperating with mainland enterprises or they can fund such venues on their own, said Cai.

Entertainment industry brokerage companies will also be allowed to set up branches on the Chinese mainland, he said.

Yuan Guiren, vice minister of education, said Taiwan students who have top-notch results in Taiwan college entrance examinations can also apply to mainland universities.

They will be recruited after passing interviews organized by mainland universities, he said, adding the ministry encourages and supports intercollegiate communications and cooperation between mainland and Taiwan universities such as student exchange programs and acknowledgement of credits.

Tian Jin, deputy director of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, said Taiwan cable TV network will be allowed to provide information services in cable TV facilities and related techniques in Fujian Province.

Regulators are also making policies that will allow Taiwan companies and individuals to cooperate with mainland businesses in movie shooting, movie theater construction and renovation, and mainland movies distribution, he said.

Wu Shulin, deputy chief of the General Administration of Press and Publication, said the administration plans to make Beijing, Shanghai and Fujian, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces test zones for cross-Straits publishing cooperation.

Publishers in Taiwan will be allowed to cooperate with mainland counterparts in publishing scientific and technological journals through book copyright trade, he added.

According to Cai Wu, cultural exchanges between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan is still faced with many "man-made obstructions and difficulties."

But he said the Chinese mainland will make more favorable policies in the near future to break down the obstruction, and to encourage more Taiwan cultural organizations and enterprises to support cross-Straits cultural exchanges.

Cultural exchanges between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan should be regularized, he added.

Cai's call was echoed by Chang Yui-tan, a special guest to the cross-Straits forum from the Kuomintang.

Chang said the Chinese mainland and Taiwan are planning to hold two cross-Straits culture summit forums in September this year and in next January.

"The goal of cross-Straits cultural exchanges is to lay a solid ground for the development of the peaceful ties across the Taiwan Straits," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency July 12, 2009)