BEIJING -- Taiwanese exporters shipping commodities to the mainland enjoyed more than 281 million yuan (about 434,000 U.S. dollars) in tariff reductions between January and May, a government spokesman said on Wednesday.

Taiwan exported commodities worth a total of 1.56 billion U.S. dollars in the five months after the mainland and Taiwan officially implemented the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) on Jan. 1, Yang Yi, a spokesman with the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office, said at a press conference.

More than forty companies and five financial firms from Taiwan have entered the mainland market under the ECFA's "early harvest" plan, and more than 10 mainland companies have entered the Taiwan market under the same plan, Yang said.

The official said that the first group of individual mainland tourists to visit the island after the recent lifting of a travel ban will represent a chance for people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to enhance mutual understanding.

The spokesman also announced that thousands of young people from the mainland and Taiwan would participate in a special "exchange event" to be held in Beijing and other mainland cities in July.