Mainland welcomes Taiwan's loosening hold on investment

BEIJING, July 18 (Xinhua) -- The Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council on Friday welcomed the Taiwan authorities' decision to loosen restrictions on Taiwan companies' investing in mainland projects.

"The decision is very important for the cross-Strait economic communication and cooperation, and we welcome that," said a spokesman with the office.

Under the new regulations starting on Aug. 1, institutional investment will be 60 percent of a company's net value. Individuals are now allowed to invest as much as 5 million U.S. dollars, compared with the current 80 million NT dollars (2.63 million U.S. dollars).

With joint efforts from both sides, the country saw great progress in economic cooperation. In addition, people from both sides were also hoping that man-made obstacles and unreasonable practice in bilateral economic cooperation would be eliminated, said the office.

Currently, the cross-Strait relations have witnessed rare historic opportunities as agreements on weekend charter flights and the island's access to mainland tourists officially took effect, it said. The mainland would continue to promote cross-Strait cooperation in economy and other fields and maintain the momentum in the improvement of bilateral relations, it added.