HONG KONG, June 15 (Xinhua) -- The improvement of cross-Strait relations has brought peace and prosperity not only to the Chinese mainland and Taiwan, but to the Asia-Pacific region, Taiwan's former leader Ma Ying-jeou said on Wednesday.

In a pre-recorded speech at an awards ceremony held in Hong Kong by the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA), Ma said over the past eight years, the Chinese mainland and Taiwan signed 23 agreements and officials in charge of cross-Strait affairs from both sides met for several times.

The number of scheduled cross-Strait flights each week rose from zero to 890, over 4 million mainland tourists traveled to Taiwan last year, a 14-fold increase and the number of Chinese mainland students in Taiwan surpassed 42,000, almost a 50-fold increase, he said.

During his meeting with Xi Jinping in Singapore on Nov. 7 last year, both sides affirmed that the 1992 Consensus is the common foundation to consolidate the cross-Strait peace, Ma said.

"The cross-Strait relations have improved dramatically in the last eight years," bringing peace and prosperity not only to the Chinese mainland and Taiwan, but to the Asia-Pacific region as a whole, he added.

He expressed the hope that this trend will continue despite the recent change of Taiwan authorities, and the new authorities will have "the required wisdom and courage to maintain the peaceful and prosperous status quo" created in the last eight years.

Ma looked forward to the future that Hong Kong and Taiwan can work together to continue to contribute to the cross-Strait and regional peace and prosperity.

The SOPA invited Ma to give a speech at the ceremony earlier, but Taiwan authorities rejected Ma's application to go to Hong Kong on Sunday. Ma gave the speech through a pre-recorded video which was presented at the ceremony.