1st Ld-Writethru: Chinese mainland to give Taiwan priority in opening-up: Premier

Chinese mainland will give priority to Taiwan in terms of the depth and intensity of opening-up, said Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Sunday.

Li made the remarks while answering a question from a Taiwan reporter at the press conference after conclusion of the annual legislative session.

He asked the reporter to convey the message to people in Taiwan, which he believed "will be reassuring."

The Premier also pledged to continue protecting the legitimate rights and interests of the Taiwan-funded enterprises and Taiwan business people on the mainland, and providing proper preferential policies to them.

"People on both sides of the Taiwan strait are members of one big family, as long as we continue to adhere to the One-China principle and the 1992 Consensus, oppose Taiwan independence and uphold peaceful development for cross-strait relations," he said.

To boost the economic cooperation of the two sides, he noted that "two wheels" should be set in motion.

"One is to enhance institution-building, for example, to continue to pursue the follow-up consultation of ECFA (Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement), while the other wheel is about further mutual opening-up," he said.

We welcome people from Taiwan businesses, particularly young people, to pursue their career in the mainland, and enhance personnel interflow, so as to "bring the hearts and minds of people on both sides of the strait even closer to each other," he said.

A total of 136 investment projects from mainland businesses were given green light in Taiwan in 2014. Statistics show that investment in Taiwan from the mainland reached 334.63 million U.S. dollars last year.

In the meantime, 388 Taiwan investment projects on the mainland were approved by the island in 2014. The investment totaled 9.83 billion U.S. dollars, a 13.18 percent increase from 2013. Endi