BEIJING, May 31 (Xinhua) -- The number of Taiwan-funded farm ventures on the Chinese mainland have exceeded 5,000 and brought an investment of nearly 4 billion U.S. dollars, the Ministry of Agriculture announced Wednesday.

    The mainland has been improving infrastructure and production conditions to create a better environment for Taiwan investors, said He Ziyang, deputy head of the ministry's general office.

    Local governments were seeking greater cooperation with Taiwan businesses as a way to boost their economies, He said.

    Since 1997, the Central government has approved agricultural cooperation experiment zones for Taiwan investors in Fujian, Hainan, Shandong, Heilongjiang and Shaanxi Provinces.

    By the end of last year, the number of Taiwan-funded agricultural enterprises in these zones had reached 1,800, with contractual investment totaling more than 2 billion U.S. dollars.

    In April, two agricultural parks dedicated to capital and technology intensive farm projects were built in Zhangpu City, Fujian Province, and Qixia City, Shandong Province.

    He said local governments had provided Taiwan businesses with preferential policies, including streamlined land use applications and long-term land leases at low prices.

    Agricultural exchanges between Taiwan and the mainland began in the 1980s. The cross-Straits trade in farm produce reached 421 million U.S. dollars by 2004.

    Last August, the mainland unilaterally increased the number of fruit categories that could be imported from Taiwan from 12 to 18, with 15 incurring zero tariffs.

    About 1,160 tons of fruit from Taiwan were imported by the mainland last year with no tariffs, saving 1.8 million yuan (224,000 U.S. dollars) in taxes.

    In April, the government approved another four categories of fruit to enter the mainland market. Tariffs have also been scrapped on 11 types of vegetables and eight aquatic products from Taiwan. Enditem