ARATS president visits Taiwan\'s seaports

Mainland chief negotiator Chen Deming led a business delegation to visit the port of Taichung in central Taiwan on Saturday, seeking cooperation opportunities between seaports across the Taiwan Strait. Chen, president of the mainland's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), said along with economic globalization, port cities have become the center of international exchanges of goods and the global value chain, due to low cost of shipping, explaining why he is interested in studying Taiwan's seaports. He said the Port of Taichung shares similarities with the mainland's port of Suzhou, as they both handle more bulk cargoes than containers. Chen hoped that there will be closer cooperations between seaports in the mainland and Taiwan. At the invitation of the Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation, Chen has led a business delegation, including mainland officials, heads of industrial parks and business leaders, to visit Taiwan's enterprises and industrial parks since Tuesday. It is the first time Chen has visited Taiwan as the ARATS president. As of Saturday, Chen has visited three seaports of Taiwan, including the port of Taipei, Kaohsiung and Taichung. Chen said the three seaports, being deep water ports, all have good natural conditions, and are complementary to one another in terms of functions, besides they are all international ports. "They all have great potential," Chen said. Jian Danian, deputy director of the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone Administration and a member of the delegation, said he hoped the Shanghai free trade zone can work with the Port of Taichung to improve their international transshipment volume through cooperation. On Saturday, Chen also visited the Elite International Logistics Co, Ltd. In Taichung, and the MediaTek Ink., a semiconductor company in Hsinchu city.