TAIPEI -- The implementation of the cross-Strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) has created more job opportunities for Taiwan, said Chiang Pin-kung, chairman of Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) on Thursday.

The implementation of ECFA has provided more opportunities for Taiwan enterprises that produce products listed in the "early harvest program" of the ECFA to sell products to the Chinese mainland, Chiang said.

Those enterprises are vigorously expanding their production capacities to meet the demand, Chiang told Xinhua during a media tour organized by SEF to Tainan, a city in southern part of Taiwan.

"The implementation of ECFA was also an illustration of the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations, which makes international enterprises more willing to cooperate with Taiwan enterprises or invest in Taiwan," he said.

During the first five months in 2011, the number of employees in Taiwan's manufacturing industries reached 2.56 million, up 4.78 percent from the same period last year, according to the materials provided by the SEF.

The employment growth rates of the industries that have been listed in the "early harvest program" of ECFA are generally higher than the employment growth rate of manufacturing industries as a whole, it said.

The employment growth rate of mechanical equipment manufacturing industry reached 7.53 percent during the first five months of 2011, higher than that of any other manufacturing industry, the SEF source said.