Taiwan and the mainland are to sign a crucial agreement tomorrow to protect the investments of mainland-based Taiwanese businessmen.
The cross-strait investment-protection pact, long-sought by Taiwanese business people, will likely be inked during the eighth round of high-level talks set to begin in Taipei on Wednesday.
Chiang Pin-kung, chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), and his mainland counterpart Chen Yunlin of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (Arats), will represent the two sides in signing the agreement - one of two expected to be penned in the latest round of talks, which have been held about every six months, since June 2008.
The two organisations are the leading bodies representing their respective governments in the talks and other dealings.
Senior officials plan to finalise terms of the investment-protection pact and the customs co-operation pact on Wednesday, followed by their signings the next day, according to SEF.
The investment protection pact - applicable to businesspeople, their dependents and Taiwanese colleagues on the mainland - is considered the most important accord since the two sides signed the Economic Co-operation Framework Agreement (ECFA) in June 2010. The ECFA is a trade pact that reduces tariffs and increases market access. Taiwanese businesspeople are estimated to have poured an estimated US$300 billion in investment into the mainland in the past 20 years.