Annual plenary meeting of the Committee for Development of the World Centre of Tourism and Leisure.
The Committee for Development of the World Centre of Tourism and Leisure will soon conduct an interim review of the city’s first Five-Year Development Plan, in order to prepare for the formulation of the next five-year plan.
The decision was made during a 2018 plenary meeting of the advisory body, held on Thursday (20 September). The meeting was convened to review Macao’s first Five-Year Development Plan, focused on the city’s socio-economic development spanning the period from 2016 to 2020.
The Chief Executive, Mr Chui Sai On, who also heads the Committee, presided over the plenary meeting. The five policy secretaries and representatives of relevant Government departments attended Thursday’s meeting.
The goals set by the Five-Year Plan were being achieved in a phased manner, said Mr Chui. To evaluate the effectiveness of the Plan, the Government has created a set of objectives and indicators: the latest quarterly evaluation showed that the Government had achieved an average accomplishment rate of 90 percent.
Mr Chui urged Committee members to strengthen cross-departmental coordination, in order to step up efforts to transform Macao into a world centre of tourism and leisure, and a commercial and trade cooperation service platform between China and Portuguese-speaking countries (collectively known as “Centre and Platform” policies).
The Committee also discussed introducing additional areas to the Five-Year Development Plan, in line with suggestions made during the first meeting of the Central Government’s leading group for the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The leading group’s meeting took place in August.
The Committee planned to broaden the areas covered by the Five-Year Plan in order to include Macao’s role in the development of the Greater Bay Area, a city cluster formed by nine cities in Guangdong Province plus the two Special Administrative Regions (SARs) – i.e. Hong Kong and Macao.
The topics to be added to the city’s Five-Year Plan covered five areas of work, including: pushing forward policies for the adequate diversification of the economy via opportunities arising from the development of the Greater Bay Area; taking part in technology and innovation development within the Greater Bay Area; supporting young people to work and start a business in the Greater Bay Area; facilitating connectivity of infrastructure within the Greater Bay Area; and creating more favourable measures to support Macao residents to work and live in other areas of the Greater Bay Area.
The Five-Year Development Plan is designed to complement the nation’s 13th Five-Year Plan. The city’s Five-Year Plan aims to boost Macao’s contributions to national strategic development, in particular the city’s efforts in relation to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road (collectively known as the “Belt and Road” initiative).