A business delegation of the Chinese mainland kicked off a shopping spree in Taiwan Monday with plans to purchase the island's products amid growing trade ties.

    The group, organized by the Mainland Association for Cross-Strait Economic and Trade Exchanges, was composed of nearly 80 representatives of 35 companies including the mainland's IT and home appliance giants Lenovo, Haier, Changhong and ZTE.

    The shopping list may cover home appliance, machinery, textile and foodstuffs manufactured in the island.

    Soundbite: Li Shuilin, director of the association and the delegation head "We will try to buy everything we need in Taiwan as long as it has. This is our purpose. This will bring a better and bigger development of the cross-strait economic and trade exchanges."

    The mainland businesses would hold talks with Taiwan counterparts in Taipei and Kaohsiung to learn more about local products and their market potentials in the mainland, Li said.

    They will probably make some purchasing orders, although no exact plans have been announced.

    The arrival of the mainland delegation, the first of this kind, was warmly received in the island amid the mainland's repeatedly calls for collaborations across the Taiwan Straits to grapple with the international economic downturn.

    Soundbite: He Chengming, vice president of TCL Corporation " We bought panels which worth 700 million U.S dollars from AU Optronics Corp and Chi Mei Optoelectronics this year. But we hope to reach more companies through this activity. We will also buy other products beside panels."

    This marked a substantial step made by the mainland to help boost the investment in Taiwan and the purchase of Taiwan products, which were proposed by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in April.

    The mainland announced last week that seven to nine buying teams will be organized to Taiwan between May and September to help develop the island economy during the global downturn.

    Soundbite: Lai Chengmin, a Taiwan businessman "The form of this activity will be discussed later. Anyway, it's better to have another opportunity for business and understanding. When we look back at this three or five years later, today may be a start of a history."

    China Video Industry Association would organize a visit of leading mainland television producers on Monday to hammer out a planned 2.2 billion U.S. dollars worth contract of TV parts produced by Taiwan suppliers.

    Also in June, tea merchants and fruit organizations would visit central and south Taiwan. In September, representatives of trading cooperatives from 11 provinces and cities, six industry associations and 13 agricultural products producers will visit the island.

    The mainland's telecommunication companies including China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom also plan to visit the island to ink some purchasing contracts.

    Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Beijing.