CHANGSHA: Kuomintang (KMT) Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung arrived on the Chinese mainland Friday to attend the Fifth Cross-Straits Economic, Trade and Culture Forum set for July 11 and 12 in Changsha, capital of central Hunan Province.

Jia Qinglin (R), Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, shakes hands with Kuomintang Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung upon Wu's arrival for the Fifth Cross-Straits Economic, Trade and Culture Forum in Changsha, central China's Hunan province, July 10, 2009. [Xinhua]

While receiving Wu's delegation at the airport, the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Taiwan Work Office Director Wang Yi said the forum this year would focus on enhancing cultural and educational cooperation, which was agreed upon between Hu Jintao, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, and KMT Chairman Wu in May.

"A peaceful development of cross-Straits relations not only needs economic drive, but cultural impetus as well," Wang said, adding the forum would be "another pageant for cross-Straits exchanges and dialogue" and "unveil an exciting curtain for cross-Straits cultural and educational exchanges in a new age."

"Both people are Chinese descendants and have the same cultural background. Although there are cultural differences between the two sides, they are complementary," Wu said.

He hoped cooperation could be boosted through the forum.

Leaving Taipei, Wu said he welcomed people from all walks of life outside the KMT and the CPC to the forum to exchange opinions.

He said the forum had focused on economics and trade in the past, but this time it would focus on cultural issues, with topics including inheritance and innovation of Chinese culture, complementary collaboration of cultural industries between the mainland and Taiwan and cross-Straits educational exchanges.