TKU set up Cross-strait Financial Research Center at the start of the February. The Center invited Professor Wei Duan of the Department of the Banking and Finance to be its first ever director.

Professor Wei stresses the urgency and necessity of establishing such an institute, as the intense development of the cross-strait commerce in recent years has made financial transactions a challenge in terms of investment, financial management, capital protection, conversion of currencies and their legal implications. To illustrate such a challenge, he points out that despite the voluminous exchange between Mainland and Taiwan, there has not been any Taiwanese bank in China, nor vice versa to deal with these issues. Consequently, should any monetary dispute occur, it will require a complicated process to resolve it. The inauguration of his institute, he asserts, is to address these needs so that a better financial infrastructure could be suggested to the government or private businesses for future dealings.

Apart from Professor Wei, the faculty members on the program will be scholars and entrepreneurs from both sides of the strait. For example, Tao Zai-pu, a specialist in social and economic complexity from the Northeastern University of China, Jiao Ren-ho, a professor from the Chinese Culture University of Taiwan, and Lu Ren-kang, the Director of the Dan Chung Bills Finance Corp., among others, will teach at the Center. (~ Ying-hsueh Hu )