Cross-Strait transport links off agenda
27 July 2006
Taiwan's hard-line pro-independence camp has dashed hopes for direct transport links with the mainland by forcing President Chen Shui-bian to take the issue off the agenda of a conference on sustaining the island's economic development, which opens today. A proposal to remove the ceiling on Taiwanese investments on the mainland, currently limited at 40% of net worth, has also been removed. A committee in charge of drafting a resolution on the island's trade policy regarding the mainland decided on Tuesday to strike off the proposals, the government-funded Central News Agency reported Wednesday. Opposition Kuomintang chairman Ma Ying-jeou said his party would not attend a conference that ignored the growing voices for direct transport links with the mainland, but said he would not oppose members attending.