BEIJING -- Chinese mainland and Taiwan on Thursday jointly established an economic cooperation committee under the framework of the cross-Straits Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA).

The mainland and Taiwan agreed in their landmark economic pact reached last year that the two sides would set up such a committee to handle issues related to the ECFA.

Through negotiations between the mainland's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) and Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), the ARATS Executive Vice Chairman Zheng Lizhong and the SEF Vice Chairman Kao Kong-lian were designated the committee's conveners, said a statement issued by the ARATS on Thursday.

The mainland's chief representative to the committee is Jiang Zengwei, who is ARATS' special advisor and Vice Minister of Commerce, other delegates include the ARATS's council members and experts from the Commerce Ministry, State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office, National Development and Reform Commission and Industry and Information Technology Ministry, Finance Ministry, General Administration of Customs, General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.

Taiwan's chief representative to the committee is Francis Kuo-Hsin Liang, an official from Taiwan's economic affairs authority, according to the statement.

The two sides agreed that more delegates could be added to the committee if necessary in the future, it said.

source:Xinhua