The ideas of the economic zone has been around since 2001, when Fujian province was undergoing strong economic growth and the Fujian provincial government thought it needed to be competitive with other economic zones such as the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta economic zones [REF].
In 2008, Mainland China through its Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits and Taiwan via Straits Exchange Foundation agreed on an Economic Pact which opened direct transport links for the first time since the end of the Chinese civil war.