Shenzhen's top leader and Tainan KMT head reached consensuses to have closer ties as the Taiwan guests wrapped up their five-day visit in the city Tuesday.

Li Hongzhong, secretary of the Shenzhen Municipal Committee of the CPC, had a meeting with Chuang Song-wang, leader of the KMT in Tainan, at the Wuzhou Guest House on Tuesday morning.

After the meeting, the two sides released a statement of 10 consensuses they had reached in building a stable and long-term communication mechanism, expanding mutual nongovernmental exchanges, and boosting economic and trade cooperation.

The consensuses were based on the joint press communique released after General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee Hu Jintao and former Taiwan KMT party chairman Lien Chan met in Beijing on April 29 this year.

According to the statement, both sides will build a platform for regular inter-party communication and organize party personnel at different levels to visit each other in future.

Both sides will also enhance cooperation in a wide range of fields such as economy and trade, science and technology, tourism, art and culture, academy and sports to gradually develop a mutually reliant, beneficial and complementary relationship.

Both sides will encourage groups and people in Tainan to join the annual China Hi-Tech Fair and international cultural industry fair.

(Shenzhen Daily August 31, 2005)