Taiwanese businessmen on Wednesdayhailed the mainland's agreement on granting huge bank loans to support their investment in the mainland.

"It is very good news for Taiwanese investors, reflecting that the mainland attaches importance to them," said Xie Kunzong, president of Beijing Association for Taiwanese-invested Enterprises.

The mainland's support to Taiwanese investors is a good beginning which will help push the economic and trade exchanges across the Taiwan Straits, said Ding Kunhua, president of Tianjin Association for Taiwanese-invested Enterprises.

Zhang Hanwen, honorary president of Dongguan Association for Taiwanese-invested Enterprises, said the bank loans will help withthe capital turnover and upgrade of Taiwanese enterprises.

Economic cooperation across the Taiwan Straits has been expanding in recent years. The first Taiwanese enterprise started business in the mainland in 1983.

To date, more than 65,000 Taiwan-invested projects have been approved by the mainland with atotal contracted sum exceeding 82.7 billion US dollars.

However, most Taiwanese enterprises are bothered by fund raising and need financial support, but they are hampered by the restrictions set by Taiwan authorities, said Chen Yunlin, directorof the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, at the agreement's signing ceremony on Wednesday.

Actually, the Taiwan authorities not only set strict limitations on Taiwanese business people investing in the mainland, but also have been passive in allowing mainland-based Taiwanese enterprises to go public to raise funds in Taiwan, whichcaused financial difficulty to Taiwanese businessmen, said Sun Shengliang, associate research fellow with the research institute of Taiwan issue under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Moreover, Sun said the Taiwan authorities were narrow-minded indeveloping trade relations with the mainland, which cast a shadow on the financial cooperation between the two sides and also causedfund raising difficulty.

According to Chen, in the early 1990s, the mainland had allocated over 3 billion yuan (about 390 million US dollars) to partly help Taiwan investors buy fixed assets for their factories in the mainland.

In addition, Taiwan investors are allowed to trade A-shares on the mainland's stock market, he noted.

The mainland is the largest export market and source of trade deficit for Taiwan, while Taiwan is the second largest export market for the mainland. The mainland is also the largest investment destination for Taiwan, said Chen.

The mainland has taken many measures to provide convenient fundraising for Taiwanese businessmen, Sun said. So far, the mainland has approved the establishment of two Taiwanese-funded banks, one Taiwanese-funded insurance company, representative offices of seven banks, and nearly 30 representative offices of 12 Taiwanese-funded securities companies and nine insurance companies.

Nowadays, more and more Taiwanese businessmen are raising fundsin the mainland rather than back in Taiwan, which is encouraged bythe mainland and supported by mainland's local banks, he noted.

At the signing ceremony, Chen Yuan, president of the State Development Bank (SDB), said as a policy bank of the government, the SDB will cooperate with the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office in supporting fund raising by Taiwanese enterprises.

Regarding this comment, Sun said unlike common commercial loans, the credit loans granted by the SDB will guide the investment of Taiwanese enterprises in accordance with national policies, and set course for the fund-raising services of commercial banks.

He also noted that the investment fields of Taiwanese businessmen today have extended to the risky high-tech industry, which is appropriate for support by SDB loans.

Chen Yunlin and Chen Yuan, heads of the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office and the State Development Bank (SDB), signed an agreement on Wednesday which promises to provide Taiwan investors with credit loans totaling 30 billion yuan (about 3.9 billion US dollars) in the coming five years. It makes the SDB the first mainland bank to grant loans to Taiwan investors.

Source: Xinhua