BEIJING/TAIPEI - The Eighth Cross-Straits Economic, Trade and Culture Forum is scheduled to be held on July 28 and 29 in Harbin, capital of Northeast China's Heilongjiang province, a mainland official said Wednesday.

The theme of the forum is "deepening peaceful development, benefiting people across the Straits," Fan Liqing, spokeswoman for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, said at a press conference.

The forum will touch on topics related to cross-Straits economic and trade cooperation, as well as cultural and educational exchanges, Fan said.

The forum, initiated in 2006, is sponsored by the Kuomintang Party and the Communist Party of China.

In Taipei, the KMT said its honorary chairman Wu Po-hsiung will lead a delegation to attend the forum.

Senior officials of the KMT and the CPC, government officials, scholars and representatives from the trade, financial, tourism, education, publishing, film and television industries will be present at the forum, Fan said.