NT-yuan conversion service launched in Kinmen, Matsu

This article was written by Yi-jing Wu and published by the Taiwan Journal on October 7, 2005. It reports that starting on October 3, the Chinese yuan (CNY) and Taiwan's New Taiwan Dollar (NT) currencies can be legally exchanged in Kinmen and Matsu on a trial basis. Kinmen and Matsu are two small island groups located only a few kilometers from China's southeast coast. The two island groups are under the sovereignty of the Republic of China on Taiwan.

Four banks are authorized to provide CNY-NT exchange service. Local travel agencies, hotels, airlines and duty-free shops in Kinmen and Matsu can also apply for authorization to offer the service.

The currency exchange service is available to visitors from China, residents of Kinmen and Matsu, and residents of Taiwan proper who are eligible to participate in the "mini three links" program. The latter category includes those who have invested in or reside in China and their family members and those who urgently need to travel in either direction to visit relatives or for other "special occasions or purposes".

Currently, the number of trips made in both directions by citizens at both sides of the Taiwan Strait under the "mini three links" program comes to about 150,000 per year.

A cross-strait economics and financial form held in Shanghai recently concluded that several cross-strait economic and financial issues need urgent attention. One of these is the currency exchange issue, since the growing volume of cross-strait trade and investment without a proper cross-strait financial cooperation mechanism has given rise to a high level of underground financial activity in recent years.