The package inked yesterday was another milestone in the development of relations across the Taiwan Straits.

Three agreements on regular cross-Straits flights, financial cooperation and joint crackdown on crimes were signed and consensus reached on mainland investment in the island.

This was the third round of talks in less than a year between Chen Yunlin, president of ARATS (Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits), and Chiang Pin-kung, chairman of SEF (Straits Exchange Foundation).

What has been achieved in this remarkably short period shows that there is much we can and need to do to expand the area of cooperation once we put aside political and ideological differences in favor of a pragmatic approach.

Blood is thicker than water. The progress made so far testifies to the fact that nothing can stop the increasingly close ties between people across the Taiwan Straits. The separatist moves by former Taiwan leader Chen Shuibian had delayed the three direct links (air, shipping and postal services) by almost a decade but they cannot stall cooperation between the two sides.

The number of chartered flights across the Straits has increased from 36 to 108 a week in the four months from July to November 2008, and still, they hardly meet the needs of increasing travel across the Straits.

This is a sign that the three direct links that were officially started from December last year have not just unleashed the long-withheld contact and exchange between people on both sides, but stimulated further cooperation.

The rapid development of ties has also made it urgent for ARATS and SEF to have regular contact and a working agenda for negotiations on specific issues to better facilitate the developing tracks of cooperation.

So it is no surprise that: the chartered flights should have become regular ones and the number further increased from 108 to 270 a week; financial institutions on both sides have a mechanism for cooperation; and, public security departments of both sides have joined hands to crack down on crime across the Straits.

All these will bring even more benefits to people on both sides. That tourists from the mainland have made more than 100,000 trips to the island since the island opened itself to such trips in July last year speaks volumes about how much both sides have benefited from cooperation.

It is particularly noteworthy that ARATS and SEF have reached a consensus on mainland businesses investing in the island.

The one-way investment from the island to the mainland in the past decades has not only deprived mainland businesses of opportunities on the island but also slowed down the economic development of the island.

Seeing how overseas investment in the past three decades has pushed economic growth on the mainland and benefited investors, it will not be difficult to understand what investment from the mainland will mean to both.

When major economies worldwide are striving to deal with the economic slowdown, it makes particular sense for both sides to further intensify their economic cooperation.

With substantial progress made this time, we have reason to look forward to broader vistas of cooperation in the days ahead.

(China Daily 04/27/2009 page4)

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