Top officials from Taiwan and the mainland have signed deals on daily direct flights and new cargo routes as well as direct ocean traffic between the two. Chen Yunlin, negotiating for the mainland, also said he aimed to normalise financial ties with Taiwan despite the global financial crisis. The two sides agreed to begin direct air and sea cargo shipments, open postal links and notify each other quickly of any food safety issues. Negotiators agreed to allow 60 cargo flights a month, the first time that goods will be able to travel non-stop between Taiwan and the mainland. The mainland will open 63 ports for direct shipping links, while Taiwan will open 11 ports.

Due to the rising costs of raw materials, fuel and labor some small and medium logistics enterprises have had to drop out the market, while larger companies are seeing their profits drop or in the red. Figures from China Logistics Information Center show some new trends for logistics firms. Firstly, market demand is slowing. In the first three quarters, transportation fees were 1,885 billion yuan ($276.22 billion), which accounted for 51.2 percent of social logistics fees, the lowest level in the past ten years. This is down 2.7 percentage points compared with the same period last year. Second, the increase in logistics general profit is slowing. In the first three quarters of this year the amount of value-added in the logistics industry amounted to 1259.4 billion yuan, accounting for 17.3 percent of value-added in the service industry. This is 6.7 percent of gross domestic profit, down 0.3 or 0.2 percentage points respectively in 2007. Third, the increase in the amount of investment in the logistics industry is slowing. In the first three quarters the industry's fixed asset investment was 1067.5 billion yuan, up 13.5 percent year on last year.

Malaysia's International Trade and Industry minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has called on the country's logistics providers to improve their service quality ahead of moves by Asean member states to undertake equity liberalisation and allow up to 49 per cent of foreign equity by this year. The figure will rise to 51 per cent by 2010 and 70 per cent by 2013.  According to the Ministry, logistics contributed 12.2 per cent to the country's GDP in 2007 and the value of air cargo being transported was worth RM1.1 billion.