Taipei - Taiwan's opposition presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou vowed Tuesday to ease restrictions on Chinese investments in the island's property market within six months if elected. "There should be no problem for mainland businessmen to invest in the property market here," the Nationalist Party or Kuomintang candidate said.
Ma is pushing for a more liberal cross-strait economic policy, saying continuation of the isolation from mainland would marginalize the island, given the rise of the Chinese economic power.
He also pledged to speed up the opening of direct flights across the strait, beginning with weekend charters in July.
Ma is leading opponent Frank Hsieh of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party by as much as 20 per cent in opinion polls for the March 22 election.
Hsieh said he also supports liberalizing relations, but claimed that Ma was trying to achieve "de jure" cross-strait unification by pushing for a "one-China" common market.
But Ma said Tuesday that he would keep mainland workers out of the island's labour market, and maintain the current ban on imports of some 800 farm products from China to protect local interests.
