The Chinese mainland and Taiwan have agreed to hold a joint maritime search and rescue exercise every other year, taking turns to host the event, Vice Minister of Transport Xu Zuyuan said Thursday.

Xu made the announcement on Thursday during the ongoing cross-strait maritime rescue exercise, the second such exercise since 2010.

The exercise aims to meet the mounting needs of maritime emergency rescues after the mainland and Taiwan started direct flights and shipments of commodities in 2008.

The drill, set in the waters between Xiamen and Jinmen on the Taiwan Strait, consists of multiple scenarios, including rescue operations for overturned fishing boats and rescuing people thrown overboard, officials said.

In 2011, the maritime rescue coordinating center of Southeast China's Fujian Province, on the opposite side of Taiwan across the strait, rescued 193 ships and saved 1,973 people in its 209 maneuvers.

As of the first half of this year, the number of people making the crossing by sea between the mainland and Taiwan rose 13.6 percent year-on-year to hit 840,000 while the volume of cargo and container transportation reached 27 million tons and 840,000 twenty-foot equivalent units, or TEUs.

Xinhua