Beijing – Negotiators from Taiwan and China signed a series of agreements Sunday to increase cooperation and investment across the Taiwan Strait. Taiwan’s chief negotiator Chiang Pin-kung, chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation, met Chen Yunlin from the mainland Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits in the southern city of Nanjing.

Taiwan agreed to clear the way for Chinese companies to do business on the island, the state-run news agency Xinhua reported.

“Taiwan sincerely welcomes mainland companies to invest on the island,” according to a foundation statement quoted in the report.

“The goal of economic normalization between the two sides is being realized,” Wang Yi, director of China’s State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, was quoted as saying.

The negotiators, meeting for the third time since China and Taiwan resumed talks last year, also signed three separate agreements.

The first would increase the frequency and routes of cross-strait direct flights, Xinhua reported.

There would now be a total of 270 flights per week, up from 108, and new routes from Guangzhou and Shanghai to Taipei, as well as from Hefei, Harbin, Nanchang, Guiyang, Ningbo and Jinan.

In the second agreement, the two sides reportedly pledged to work together to fight cross border crimes including drugs and human trafficking, and economic crimes involving fraud, money laundering, forging or falsifying currencies and securities.

According to Xinhua, negotiators from both sides will also now consider cases where there are discrepancies between Chinese and Taiwanese laws.

Chen and Chiang also signed an agreement for a cooperative financial regulatory mechanism aimed at overseeing banking, securities, futures and insurance sectors across the Strait.

Under this agreement, financial organizations would be allowed to do business across the straits, and a currency-clearing system will gradually be set up, the report said.

The latest agreements build on six previous joint actions since last June which first saw the establishment of weekend charter flights, and the expansion of cross-strait postal and shipping. (dpa)