The civil economic exchanges and cooperation between Taiwan and the Chinese mainland have contributed greatly to the economic growth of both sides and thus achieved a win-win outcome, said a Taiwan economist here Thursday.

"In the past decade, cross-Strait economic exchanges and cooperation have developed rapidly," said Ye Wan'an at an ongoing forum of elites from the two sides of the Taiwan Straits.

The civil economies of the two sides, according to him, have grown rather powerful and proved to be vigorous and able to move in accordance with the pulse of the international economy.

Taiwan, though having made 10 economic miracles in the past sixd ecades, has had to suffer economic recessions for consecutive years rendered by political barriers, he said.

Taiwanese businessmen have so far invested more than 40 billion US dollars into the mainland, he said.

Taking into account investment via the British Virgin Islands, Hong Kong and the United States and the re-investment by them after making profits, he acknowledged, the total amount could well reach 120 to 150 billion US dollars.

The investments by Taiwan business people have contributed to "the mainland's rapid economic growth, surging exports and an increase of employment opportunities in the past decade," he said.

Taiwan's exports to the mainland have also rocketed, he said.

According to Ye, Taiwan has exported 240 billion US dollars of goods to the mainland in the past 15 years, at an annual growth rate of 19 percent, nearly twice that of Taiwan's total exports.

In 2004, 48 billion US dollars, or 70 percent of all of Taiwan's 68.4 billion US dollars of gross products of information hardware industry were yielded on the mainland.