Lien Chan, the Kuomintang's (KMT) honorary chairman, said he would "try his best" to promote East-West and cross-Straits exchanges.

Lien made the comment after receiving an honorary doctorate from the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) yesterday.

The KMT and the Communist Party of China issued a statement after their historic meeting in May, and Lien expressed his hopes for increased dialogue between the two parties. He added that they are preparing for an economic forum this year. "We are working on it right now."

He is currently in Hong Kong on a four-day trip.

"This visit to Hong Kong is my first in 38 years," Lien said. "The environment is now totally different, it's a brand new situation. I am very excited and honored."

He emphasized that the trip was an educational experience for him, and that he hoped to further study and understand the key issues.

Lien added that he was pleased with the KMT's victory in the recent island-wide municipal elections in Taiwan, saying it was a combined effort between the public and the electorate.

Today Lien is going to meet Chief Executive Donald Tsang, who as chancellor of CUHK conferred Lien the doctorate at yesterday's ceremony. Lien will give a speech on Saturday to discuss from "an objective perspective" issues that China is currently facing.

Also conferred the honorary doctorate of laws yesterday were Wang Daohan, president of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits and Professor Ambrose King, renowned sociologist. Wang's daughter received the honor for him.

At the ceremony, molecular biologist and 1993 Nobel Laureate in Medicine for his discovery of gene-splicing Richard J Roberts received the honorary doctorate of science. Vincent Cheng, chairman of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd and Taiwan anthropologist Li Yihyuan were conferred the degree of honorary doctor of social science.

(China Daily HK edition December 9, 2005)