On the afternoon of April 18th, Li Yizhong, President of the China Federation of Industry and Economics (hereinafter referred to as the "Federation of Industry and Economics"), met in Beijing with a mainland economic and trade delegation led by Miao Fengqiang, Chairman of the Federation of Industry. The visiting delegation consists of 38 leaders from various large industrial enterprises in Taiwan. The Federation of Industry and Economics invited major leaders of industry associations such as Sinopec, building materials, steel, light industry, non-ferrous metals, electronic information industry, semiconductors, machine tools, and senior representatives of key enterprises such as Sinopec to attend the meeting.

 

The Federation of Industry and Trade Unions and the Federation of Industry have maintained friendly exchanges for over 10 years, and leaders of both sides have led economic and trade groups to visit each other multiple times and jointly signed a memorandum of cooperation between the two conferences. Among them, in 2015, he signed the "Memorandum of Understanding on Cross Strait Industrial Cooperation" on behalf of the cross-strait industrial community, committed to jointly promoting deep exchanges and docking between the cross-strait industrial communities. This meeting is the first face-to-face dialogue between leaders and member units of the two sessions in recent years.

 

 

President Li Yizhong and Executive Vice President Lu Yaohua welcome Chairman Miao Fengqiang

 

Meeting on-site

 

President Li Yizhong first warmly welcomes Chairman Miao Fengqiang and his delegation. President Li Yizhong reviewed his experience of leading a delegation to visit Taiwan ten years ago, as well as his cooperation with Taiwanese petrochemical enterprises during his tenure at Sinopec, and affirmed the achievements made in the industrial development of Taiwan. President Li Yizhong believes that in the context of the hollowing out trend of manufacturing in Western countries in recent decades, it is particularly difficult for Taiwan to maintain a proportion of industry to GDP of nearly half. He hopes that both sides of the Taiwan Strait can continue to strengthen cooperation in areas such as petrochemical, electronic information, high-end machinery manufacturing, and biopharmaceuticals, which have outstanding industrial advantages in Taiwan. I hope that representatives from various industries across the Taiwan Strait attending this meeting can establish contacts, strengthen exchanges, and explore cooperation.

 

 

Chairman Li Yizhong and Chairman Miao Fengqiang

 

Chairman Miao Fengqiang thanked President Li Yizhong for his meeting and briefly introduced the recent business situation of the Taiwan Federation of Industry and its prospects for cross-strait economic and trade cooperation. The Industrial Association is a joint organization of all industry associations in Taiwan, with membership covering 157 industry associations across Taiwan. There are over 100000 member manufacturers, of which more than 70000 have business operations in mainland China. The gross domestic product of its industry and corporate members accounts for approximately 37.12% of Taiwan's GDP, and the employed labor force accounts for 35% of Taiwan's total employed population. It is the largest and most influential business organization in Taiwan. Chairman Miao mentioned that in the past two decades, Taiwan has invested over 200 billion US dollars in 5G related projects alone in mainland China. Although cross-strait exchanges have encountered many difficulties in recent years due to factors such as politics and the pandemic, it is commendable that the two sides can still maintain quite positive cooperation. He stated that this visit to mainland China has witnessed the rapid development of mainland industries. In addition to large production capacity, there have been significant improvements in innovation and operational models, and the communication industry has also made significant progress. In recent years, Taiwan's industry has also been developing towards high-end direction, so the development of high-end, intelligent, and green industries should be the focus of further strengthening cooperation between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. He hopes to carry out more long-term and in-depth cooperation with the Federation of Industry and Economics in the future, and promote "one family on both sides of the Taiwan Strait".

 

Xiong Meng, Executive Vice President and Secretary General, introduced the overview of the Federation of Industry and Economics, as well as the investigation and research carried out around the strategic positioning of "new think tanks, industrial collaboration, and international cooperation", as well as the work in the fields of industrial collaboration and international and Hong Kong Macao Taiwan exchanges and cooperation. In particular, the research on the China Industrial Award and China's industrial carbon peak "leader" enterprises participated by Taiwanese enterprises.

 

 

Speech by Xiong Meng, Executive Vice President and Secretary General

 

 

Speech by Liu Jianhua, Vice President of the China Building Materials Federation

 

 

Speech by Li Bin, Vice President of the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation

 

 

Speech by Jiang Wei, Vice President and Secretary General of China Iron and Steel Industry Association

 

 

Speech by Qin Ronghua, Advisor to the Taiwan Federation of Industries and Founder of Min Shi Group

 

Qin Ronghua, consultant to the Taiwan Federation of Industry and founder of Min Shi Group, introduced that many industrial capital in Taiwan are seeking investment opportunities. In recent years, various industries in mainland China have developed rapidly, and competition between the two sides in some industrial fields has intensified. However, Taiwanese enterprises operating in mainland China have also received significant training through competition with their counterparts in mainland China. Meanwhile, Taiwanese enterprises still have a certain advantage in the field of foreign trade. Currently, among the top ten export companies in mainland China, Taiwanese enterprises hold six seats. He believes that strengthening cooperation between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait will further consolidate the regional industrial and value chains. With the relaxation of epidemic control, cross-strait trade and civil exchanges will further resume, and the atmosphere of cross-strait communication and cooperation will tend to ease.

 

 

Speech by Executive Vice President Lu Yaohua

 

Executive Vice President Lu Yaohua pointed out that the cooperation and exchange between mainland China and Taiwan have a wide range, large space, multiple projects, and good prospects. The two sessions have great potential in promoting cross-strait industrial cooperation. It is proposed that the two sessions draft a memorandum to deepen cross-strait industrial cooperation, jointly sign and implement it. At the same time, the Federation of Industry and Economics will take the lead in organizing member units to visit Taiwan.

 

President Li Yizhong pointed out in his summary that the two sides need to deepen exchanges between industries, especially in the areas of high-tech and innovation, to break through some boundaries. In recent years, due to the suppression of the US government, cooperation between the two sides in the semiconductor industry has been interrupted. I hope that with the development of the situation, there will be some changes, and cross-strait cooperation will become better and better. The scope of industry exchanges will become wider, especially in the field of semiconductor wafer manufacturing, to better strengthen cooperation. President Li Yizhong stated that under the premise of the One China principle and the 1992 Consensus, the two sessions should play a good role as a bridge for non-governmental organizations, actively promote exchanges and cooperation between the business communities on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, and promote the peaceful reunification of the motherland.

 

Finally, President Li Yizhong and Chairman Miao Fengqiang reached a consensus on further promoting cross-strait industrial cooperation and exchange from the perspective of non-governmental organizations during the two sessions. They proposed that the two sessions further explore the possibility of jointly holding industrial exchange forums targeting specific industries and regions, and continue to strengthen mutual visits of economic and trade delegations, pragmatically deepening cross-strait cooperation in various professional fields.

 

 

Chairman Li Yizhong and Chairman Miao Fengqiang exchanged gifts as souvenirs after the meeting