The deputy chairman and secretary-general of Taiwan's quasi-official Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) will fly to Shanghai on Dec. 14 for preparatory talks ahead of the sixth round of high-level negotiations between Taiwan and China, the SEF said Friday. Kao Koong-lian and his Chinese counterpart Zheng Lizhong, vice president of the Beijing-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), will finalize the date, venue and agenda for the new round of talks between the heads of the two organizations scheduled for late December in Taipei. They will also complete the draft of a cross-strait agreement on medical cooperation that is expected to be sealed in the upcoming meeting between SEF Chairman Chiang Pin-kung and ARATS President Chen Yunlin. In addition, Kao and Zheng will discuss follow-up talks on a proposed investment protection agreement that Taiwan hopes can be worked out soon, the SEF said. The proposed investment protection agreement, which is of interest particularly to Taiwan businessmen operating in China, was excluded from the agenda of the sixth round of cross-strait talks after the two sides failed to reach consensus on certain clauses. The exact date of the sixth Chiang-Chen meeting will be announced at the end of the one-day preparatory talks in Shanghai, the SEF said. The SEF and ARATS were established to handle cross-strait exchanges in the absence of formal relations between the two sides. 