The common culture of Quyuan, the Dragon Boat Festival and Dragon Boat Racing has made Yichang one of the hot spots of Taiwan-funded enterprises.

　　In July 1988, the State Council issued “Stipulation on Encouraging Taiwan Compatriots Invest in Mainland”. Later, the first Taiwan-funded enterprise ---- Big Bird Cigarette Material Co., LTD settled in Dangyang. This is the beginning of Taiwan compatriots investment in Yichang. By June 2013, there are 196 Taiwan-funded enterprises in Yichang, with registered capital of 306 million US Dollars and total investment of 638 million US Dollars.

　　The 3rd Taiwan Investment Tide Is Coming

　　Presently, investment from Taiwan enterprises mainly focus on the fields of new materials, electronic components, equipment manufacture, specialized hospitals, biotechnology, agriculture, tourism, restaurants, department stores etc.. According to incomplete statistics, in the past 20 years, Taiwan-funded enterprises have reached sales revenue of over 6 billion RMB, earned foreign exchange of 0.7 billion US Dollars through exports, paid tax of 0.3 billion RMB, providing more than 6000 jobs for local residents, which has contributed to the all-round development of Yichang.

　　An official from Yichang Taiwan Affairs Office said, at first, Taiwan businessmen invested in Yichang by means of joint venture. However, this didn’t work well due to its small scale and low technical content. Later, it turned into proprietorship, export-oriented enterprises with high technical content and there were two investment booms. One was from 1992 to 1995. During that time, 97 Taiwan-funded enterprises came to Yichang with total investment of 155 million US Dollars. From 2000 to 2004, there were 32 newly-registered Taiwan-funded enterprises with total investment of 133 million US Dollars. Now Yichang is accelerating the construction of megacity. In the long run, the third investment boom is being formed.” In the future, the fields of investment will expand including new materials, electronic components, equipment manufacture, and magnetic electricity.

　　More Enterprises Are Coming to Yichang

　　Since the beginning of this century, more and more Taiwan-funded enterprises have started to move to north of the Yangtze River and the inner part of China. Yichang hence has become an ideal home of these enterprises.

　　Yichang has seized the chance of the Hubei (Wuhan) Taiwan Week and set up a branch session in Yichang. In recent years, the Yichang Branch has held a series of activities to establish platforms for investments, invited and received Taiwan businessmen for 110 times and 1804 persons.

　　This April, Huang Chuping, Scretary of Mnicipal Party Committee, heard the reports about Taiwan affairs and proposed that Yichang should set up a good platform for Taiwan-funded enterprises to contribute to the establishment of a big city. In April 2010 and May 2012, Guo Youming, Vice Governor of Hubei Province, former Scretary of Yichang Mnicipal Party Committee, and Li Lecheng, former Mayor of Yichang, went to Taiwan to attend Hubei Week held in Taiwan. They visited some famous enterprises and scientific parks in Taiwan, and signed some cooperation agreements on trade.

　　This May, Ma Xuming, Mayor of Yichang, went to Taiwan for cultural exchange programs. In the past 5 years, delegations of Yichang have been to Taiwan and coastal areas to attract investments for more than 40 times.

　　When attracting investment, Yichang has taken full advantage of the Taiwan-funded Enterprise Association and launched a lot of project proposals for investment.

　　Good Service to Facilitate Development of Taiwan-funded Enterprises

　　The government requires that relevant administrative departments should be responsible for their duties. In recent years, the government has solved over 500 practical problems.

　　In September 2008, Yichang has established a work group which consists of the heads of 18 departments to deal with Taiwan businessmen’s complaints. Because of its careful and patient working attitude and efficiency, this work group is praised by Taiwan businessmen.

　　In 2011, the Provincial Government issued a document to support Taiwan-funded enterprises to develop rapidly. Jiudanlu Food Science and Technology Co., Ltd. is a project which signed in the 8th Hubei (Wuhan) Taiwan Week. At the beginning, this project had difficulties in land registration and construction financing. The government allowed this project to pay the compensation first and build subsidiary facilities.

　　In October 2002, Yichang built the first Taiwan Merchants Industrial Park in Hubei Province. In July 2010, Yichang built Taiwan Farmers Experimental Park. These two Parks are next to Sanxia Airport, with Jiaozuo-liuzhou Railway and expressways connecting to Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan and some other cities. Nowadays, many Taiwan-funded enterprises have been established in Taiwan Merchants Industrial Park such as Atech OEM Inc., Thinking Electronic Industrial Co., Ltd. and Pearl Steelball Co., Ltd.. Yichang is planning to build another Taiwan Merchants Electronic Information Industrial Park which will attract more Taiwan enterprises to invest in Yichang. (Reported by Zhao Wei, Wang Jing)