Technical capabilities for high-speed Taiwan Strait railway in place, says official

The technical capabilities for the construction of a high-speed passage between Fujian province on the Chinese mainland and the Taiwan region are already in place, a senior government official said Thursday.

Cong Liang, deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission, said joint efforts will be made to realize the shared dream of people on both sides of the Strait to travel across the sea on high-speed trains as soon as possible.

He made the remakes at a press conference in Beijing while explaining a circular released on Tuesday on making Fujian province a demonstration zone for integrated development across the Strait.

Cong said once cross-Strait infrastructure connectivity is ready, more goods from Taiwan will be able to reach the Eurasian market via the China-Europe Railway Express and other transportation means.

In recent years, Fujian has promoted the construction of traffic infrastructure with a comprehensive transportation network built. This makes it technically possible to build a high-speed transport passage linking the province with Taiwan, Cong said.

"It lays a solid foundation for promoting infrastructure connectivity across the Taiwan Strait," he added.

According to the National Highway Network Plan issued last year, an expressway and a high-speed railway connecting Beijing to Taiwan, passing through Fuzhou, capital of Fujian, will be completed by 2035.