TAIPEI: Up to 64.5 percent of Taiwan's people are optimistic about relations with the mainland progressing in the coming year, according to the results of a survey released by Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Tuesday.

Members of the audience in Taiwan watch as mainland gymnasts perform in Taipei on May 25. The gymnastics team from the Chinese mainland is in Taiwan until May 31 for a visiting performance. [Agencies]

The survey also found that 76.7 percent of respondents believe it is necessary for Taiwan's SEF and the mainland's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) to exchange representative offices as interaction between Taiwan and the mainland expands.

The SEF, a quasi-official organization responsible for contacts with the mainland in the absence of official ties, conducted the telephone survey of 1,133 adult respondents on May 13 and May 14.

The survey was said to have a margin of error of plus or minus 2.91 percent.

The survey also probed respondents' opinions on the Ma Ying-jeou administration's performance on cross-Straits relations after one year in office.

More than 53 percent of respondents expressed satisfaction with the "government's" handling of cross-Straits relations during the past year.

Some 66.3 percent felt that resuming talks with the mainland, suspended for 13 years, would help improve cross-Straits relations.

Meanwhile, 60.9 percent of respondents said Taiwan's invitation to become involved with the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an observer reflected the easing of tensions between Taiwan and the mainland.

Chen Yi-hsin, a professor at Tamkang University in northern Taiwan, said bilateral agreements in several areas, Taiwan's attendance at the WHA, the increasing number of mainland tourists visiting Taiwan and plans to open Taiwan's markets to mainland investors all resulted in survey respondents' optimism.

Taiwan and the mainland have reached nine agreements on tourism, charter flights, air and sea transportation, postal services, food safety, regular flights, financial cooperation, joint crime-fighting and mutual judicial assistance.

Echoing Chen's views, Lee Yun-chieh, a professor at National Open University's department of public administration, summarized the recent progress in cross-Straits relations as being "a year of many accomplishments and optimism over future development."