The Taiwan External Trade Development Council will continue to help raise exports to the Chinese mainland, which has become Taiwan's top export market overtaking other economies, council chairman Wang Chih-Kang said Monday.

"The mainland is a huge market, becoming a target of many economies, including Taiwan," Wang said at an annual press conference in Taipei.

The mainland market took 41.1 percent in Taiwan's exports in 2009, while in 2000 the mainland only accounted for 24 percent, Wang said.

The council, founded in 1970, is the foremost non-profit trade promotion organization in Taiwan, jointly sponsored by local authorities, industry associations and commercial organizations.

In 2009, the council attracted almost 320,000 mainland customers with dozens of promotion and exhibition events on the mainland and created 1.1 billion US dollars worth of trade opportunities for Taiwanese businessmen, said Wang.

In September last year, the council held a large trade show of Taiwan products in the mainland's Nanjing, capital of the eastern Jiangsu Province. It attracted 750 Taiwanese enterprises with more than 30,000 display items.