Pingtan, the nearest island county on the Chinese mainland to Taiwan, will accelerate its opening-up and development in 2013. It plans to make investments totaling 50 billion yuan ($8 billion) next year, including 40 billion yuan for key projects, Xinhua reported in Fuzhou on Dec 27.

Pingtan will work hard to issue its industrial development guidance and preferential enterprise income tax catalogue to promote preferential policies for taxation, finance and land usage.

You Quan, secretary of the Fujian Provincial Party Committee, said the opening-up and development of Pingtan is an important platform for cross-Straits social and economic communication. He hopes Pingtan can explore a new model for cross-Straits cooperation and optimize infrastructure construction.

You also noted that policies such as industrial development guidance and preferential enterprise income taxes help encourage the establishment of a cross-Straits common homeland.

Gong Qinggai, director of the administrative committee of the Pingtan Comprehensive Pilot Zone, said that Pingtan has introduced a batch of industry projects with total investments of more than 100 billion yuan ($16.05 billion) over the past three years, including projects in telecommunications, marine economy, logistics, tourism, education and service outsourcing.

Pingtan will speed up its infrastructure construction next year and ensure the opening of the Haixia Bridge. It will open a Pingtan-Taipei marine route with an annual passenger volume of 300,000 to 400,000.

In addition, Pingtan will improve cooperation with local guilds and commerce chambers in Taiwan. It plans to build a transit hub and commodity exchange center for modern cross-Straits logistics.

Edited by Chen Zhilin and Michael Thai