Fujian uses its geographical advantage of being close to Taiwan to promote cross-Straits economic and trade development

The "Straits" is a big advantage of Fujian to promote its free trade zone. The China (Fujian) Pilot Free Trade Zone was inaugurated on Dec 12, 2014, and focuses on using its geographical advantage of being close to Taiwan to promote cross-Straits economic and social development. Over the past three years, Fujian free trade zone has developed itself into a significant platform to push cross-Straits economic and trade development, due to the launching of various preferential policies to support free trade.

The FTZ has helped deepen Fujian-Taiwan industrial cooperation. During the period from its inauguration to last August, the FTZ has added 1,800 Taiwan-funded enterprises and $5.57 billion dollars of contractual investment from Taiwan, far more than the total size prior to its inauguration.

In February 2015, KMTC Cross-Straits Advanced Material R&D Cooperation Center was established in the Fuzhou area of Fujian FTZ and brought in 15 talented researchers from Taiwan. The center focuses on the R&D of the glass material for touch screen, LCD-used baseplate glass material, chemically-enhanced glass technology, 3D glass molding technology, antimicrobial glass, and other technologies. Over the past years, the center has applied 25 national patents, of which five have been approved. Products such as aluminosilicate cover glass, antimicrobial glass, and 3D screen protector co-developed by cross-Straits researchers have been produced and taken the lead in the industry. The products also help promote the development of its upstream-downstream industries such as electronic information and optical instrument.

In September 2015, Taiwan's Standard Foods landed a sunflower seed oil project in the Xiamen area of Fujian FTZ. The project benefited from the negative list management model and started production in May 2017 with an annual output value of 4 billion yuan ($630.48 million).

In November 2015, three Taiwan-funded joint venture travel agencies including Lvmama (Fuzhou), Lion (Fujian), and Tourking, received the approval from the China National Tourism Administration to start trial operation of the group travel business of Fujian residents to Taiwan. In the recent two years, more than 600 such travel groups have been organized, helping over 20,000 Fujian residents visit Taiwan.

With the help of Fujian free trade zone, Fujian-Taiwan industrial cooperation continues to march forward.

The customs clearance of Taiwan commodities has become increasingly convenient due to the improvement of policies in Fujian FTZ. More and more Taiwan commodities enter the Chinese mainland via Fujian FTZ because of the convenient and low-cost customs clearance.

The launch of a cross-Straits inspection and quarantine data exchange center made the bilateral connection and real-time transmission of customs data between Fujian FTZ and Taiwan possible, which will cut down seven workdays for the import of Taiwan commodities. The procedure of submitting the certificate of origin was also simplified. The paper version of the certificate is not required after the Fujian customs receiving electronic ones from its Taiwan counterpart. This paperless customs clearance model between Fujian and Taiwan solves the problem of commodity arriving but the certificate not arriving. The lab test for Taiwan-produced consumer goods such as diapers and clothes can be avoided when they provide test results given by testing organizations recognized by the Taiwan Accreditation Foundation …… The launch of various trade facilitation measures attracts Taiwan commodities to enter the mainland's market via Fujian ports.

Statistics showed that 90 percent of fruits imported from Taiwan entered the mainland via Fujian ports and the import and export trade ratio between Fujian and Taiwan increased by 24.3 percent in the first half of 2017.