Mainland-Taiwan forum to kick off in Fujian

(Xinhua) Updated: 2011-06-11XIAMEN, Fujian - More than 10,000 people from both the Chinese mainland and Taiwan are expected to attend a weeklong forum to be held in the mainland's southeastern city of Xiamen starting Saturday evening, organizers said. The annual Strait Forum, now in its third year, will focus on "grassroots exchanges" across the Taiwan Strait, said Deng Benyuan, a senior Taiwan affairs official from southeast China's Fujian Province. Deng said the forum will feature 13 activities including cultural exchange and staging of Taiwan's traditional temple fairs. Kuomintang (KMT) Vice Chairman Tseng Yung-chuan and Taiwan's Taoyuan County Magistrate John Chih-Yang Wu arrived in Xiamen on Friday to participate in the forum. Wu will discuss Taoyuan's investment environment on the sidelines of the forum. Deng said that the event's 16 sub-forums, which will be hosted by civil society groups from both sides of the Strait, will focus on exchanges pertaining to labor unions, technology, finance and traditional Chinese medicine. In order to ensure broad representation for the forum, the closing ceremony will be held Friday in Taiwan's city of Taichung, organizers said. The forum will feature the participation of individuals from various circles from central and southern Taiwan and promote cooperation between villages and towns on both sides of the Strait, Fan Liqing, spokeswoman for the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office, said at a press conference last month. Fan said she hopes that mainlanders will learn more about Taiwan through the forum, and that the forum will become a platform for Taiwan's small and medium-sized enterprises to explore the mainland market. Taiwan applicants have "enthusiastically" signed up for the forum, she said, adding that the number of people attendance will be an increase over the previous two forums. The Strait Forum is an annual event, kicking off on the second Saturday of June each year, organizers said.