The Chinese mainland on Wednesday rolled out a flurry of measures to shore up the development of Taiwan-funded enterprises in agriculture and forestry industries on the mainland.

Documented as "22 Measures on Agriculture and Forestry," the supportive measures were jointly unveiled by 11 government departments, including the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and the National Forestry and Grassland Administration (NFGA) in Beijing.

The measures cover a variety of aspects concerning the development of agriculture and forestry-related enterprises from Taiwan region, including the use of agricultural and forest land, financing and funding support, investment and business operation, research and development, innovation and local market exploration. 

Through the measures, the mainland's agricultural and forestry-related industries are open to Taiwan compatriots and enterprises, and they can enjoy the same treatment as their mainland counterparts.

Taiwan-funded enterprises engaging in agriculture are entitled to agricultural insurance subsidies and relevant agricultural subsidies per the measures. The mainland also encouraged the relevant parties to offer interest-deducted loans and subsidies to those enterprises.  

Taiwan-funded companies' rural land and woodland operation rights are legally protected by the mainland under the measure, and those agricultural firms are entitled to issue corporate credit funds. 

China's forest resources have been steadily increasing over the years, with the country's woodland and tree assets topping 25.05 trillion yuan (about $3.86 trillion) by 2018, according to research jointly released by the NFGA and the National Bureau of Statistics. 

The forestry industry's gross output on the mainland exceeded 7.5 trillion yuan last year, of which three fields outweighed the 1-trillion-yuan threshold, including planting and collection of economic forest products, wood processing, and manufacturing of wood and bamboo produce, forest tourism and leisure services, said Hu Yuanhui, deputy head of the Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan Affairs Office at NFGA.  

"A role model has been set up for cross-strait cooperation in the flower industry – a batch of flower cooperation projects settled in south China's Guangxi on the heels of a seminar on the cooperation of the Guangxi-Taiwan flower industry. Nanning-Taiwan Flower Industrial Park and Liuzhou-Qingmao Flower Base have become models of cooperation between Guangxi and Taiwan," Hu said.

"In 2019, China's foreign trade of flowers reached $620 million, of which imports stood at $262 million and exports settled at $358 million," Hu added.

Zhu Fenglian, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, encouraged Taiwan compatriots to seize the opportunities brought about by the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025), adding the mainland will protect the well-being of Taiwan compatriots, give equal treatment to compatriots and enterprises from Taiwan, and work to promote integrated development across the Taiwan Straits.  

The 22 measures grant Taiwan compatriots equal development opportunities in the mainland's agriculture and forestry fields, which will further spur cross-strait exchanges and win-win cooperation, said Pang Jianguo, professor at Chinese Culture University in Taiwan. 

Taiwan-based Want Daily said Taiwan's exporters are more dependent on the mainland due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It can also be said economic and trade cooperation across Taiwan Straits has gone one step further.

Cross-strait trade in 2020 settled at $260.81 billion, with Taiwan's exports to the mainland reaching $200.66 billion, according to China's Ministry of Commerce. According to data from the island, Taiwan's exports to the mainland and Hong Kong commanded 43.9 percent of its total exports last year.  

In 2020, Taiwan was the mainland's eighth-largest trading partner and the third-largest source of imports, while the mainland served as the island region's largest trading partner and largest source of trade surplus. 

The mainland has granted approval for setting up 15 experimental zones for agricultural cooperation across the Taiwan Straits and 28 innovation parks kitted out with incentives for Taiwan farmers, as multi-leveled agricultural exchanges across the Taiwan Straits in full swing.