About 270 people from Taiwan, including the Kuomintang chairman Wu Poh-hsiung, will attend the Fifth Cross-Straits Economic, Trade and Culture Forum to be held on July 11 and 12 on the mainland, a Kuomintang official said Wednesday.

Wu would be joined by Yok Mu-ming, chairman of Taiwan's New Party, Chin Chin-sheng, Secretary-General of the People First Party, and Lin Pin-kuan, chairman of the Non-Partisan Solidarity Union, according to KMT deputy secretary-general Chang Yung-kong.

Also on the list to come include ten Kuomintang "legislators", a dozen experts from the Kuomintang think-tank, three heads and deputy heads in charge of education, culture and information work with the Taiwan authorities, representatives from the cultural, educational, religious and trade circles and students representatives on the island.

The forum, to be held in Changsha, capital of the central Hunan Province, will focus on cooperation in culture and education across the Taiwan Straits.

Topics at the forum include the inheritance and innovation of Chinese culture, promotion of cross-Straits cultural cooperation, and the extension of cross-Straits educational exchange and collaboration, said Chang.

A symposium focused on the economic and trade cooperation across the Taiwan Straits will also be held during the two-day forum.

(Xinhua News Agency July 9, 2009)