Hong Du holds a master's degree in foreign affairs from the Taiwan's Chengchi University. He is currently executive director of the Cross-Straits Common Market Foundation. He once ran a furniture shop and later served as the chairman of Puchuan Electronics.
When attending CXMEE last year, Hong Du described ECFA as "a building in progress." Yesterday afternoon, when asked by a report about the status of the "building", Hong laughed, saying: "I think the roof of the building has been completed and the agreement can be signed in one to two months' time. It will have epic results on economic and trade ties across the Taiwan Straits."
Mr. Hong also stated that economic and trade ties across the Taiwan Straits are going from strength to strength.
At last year's CXMEE, Mr. Hong delivered a speech, exploring ways for the financial industries on both sides of the Taiwan Straits to expand their exchange and cooperation. This year, a memorandum of understanding on the cooperation in the regulation of the financial industries on both sides of the Taiwan Straits has been signed and become effective.
Mr. Hong said that the business and academic communities have reached a consensus that ECFA will play a remarkable role in the normalization of economic and trade ties across the Taiwan Straits.
He added that points of consensus between the two sides of the Taiwan Straits should be included into ECFA as a practical step.