Beijing  - Chinese officials hailed Monday's opening of direct transport and postal links with Taiwan as a historic step that was expected to boost both their economies.

"Today is another memorable date in the history of cross-strait relations, ... which signifies that our 30-year effort has finally paid off," the official Xinhua news agency quoted Wang Yi, China's top official for Taiwan affairs, as saying.

Direct shipping links would greatly reduce costs and give a "new impetus" to relations between mainland China and Taiwan, said Wang, who heads the ruling Communist Party's Taiwan Work Office and its government equivalent.

Wang was speaking at the launch of direct shipping services to Taiwan from the north-eastern port of Tianjin at a ceremony that was also attended by Lien Chan, the honorary chairman of Taiwan's ruling Kuomintang party.

At another ceremony to see off the first direct flight by China Eastern Airlines to Taiwan from Shanghai's Pudong airport, Zheng Lizhong, the vice head of the Taiwan Work Office, said the new links would "help the mainland and Taiwan jointly overcome the current [global economic] difficulty."

"Given the global financial crisis, cross-strait direct flights started at exactly the right time," the agency quoted Zheng as saying. (dpa)