Lin Hsing-shan, chairman of shipping giant Evergreen Marine and head of the Taiwan Strait Shipping Association, said in a statement that the meeting would take place as soon as possible but gave no date.
The private association was set up by local shipping firms in August to try to end Nationalist-ruled Taiwan's 47-year-old ban on direct transport links with the communist mainland.
The talks would focus on the status of shipping links between Taiwan and Hong Kong after the British colony's mid-1997 handover to Chinese sovereignty, Lin said.
He denied local media reports that the talks were mainly aimed at discussing direct Taiwan-China links.
Taiwan-Hong Kong links are the more pressing problem and businessmen of both sides want to hold talks as soon as possible, Lin's statement said.
Since both sides (Taiwan and China) would benefit from resolving the problem of Taiwan-Hong Kong links, I am confident that we can reach an agreement by the end of this year.
More From This Section
Local newspapers said the meeting would take place in Hong Kong in October.
Lin returned to Taipei from China last Monday after meeting senior mainland transport officials and shipping executives.
He told reporters the atmosphere was good during his China visit and that Chinese authorities reiterated their view that Taiwan links should be established as soon as possible.
To fulfil its ambition of becoming a regional hub, Taiwan proposed in 1995 to set up an offshore transshipment centre at its southern Kaohsiung port from which ships would be allowed to sail directly across the Taiwan Strait.
The project has been delayed by sovereignty issues.
On August 20, China unveiled rules governing direct shipping links across the Strait, effective immediately, but Taiwan gave a cool response, saying Beijing's rules were mingled with sensitive political issues.
China's rules allow wholly Chinese-owned or Taiwan-owned shipping companies or joint ventures involving Chinese or Taiwanese shipowners to sail between the two sides.
Taiwan insists on the transshipment centre scheme, which would allow only transshipment of mainland and third-country cargoes, not those from Taiwan itself.
Taiwan has banned direct air and shipping links with China since Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists lost the civil war to the communists and fled to the island in 1949.
With tensions easing since the late 1980s, civilian aircraft and vessels have skirted the ban by stopping over in Hong Kong, Macau or elsewhere.
Taiwan investors, who have poured more than $20 billion into China, have pressured the Taiwan government to establish such links to save transport costs.