More quality services and business opportunities for SMEs

The Chief Executive, Mr Edmund Ho Hau Wah today pledged to provide more quality services and business opportunities for small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs). Speaking at the opening session of the “Zhejiang Week in Macao 2005” and “Zhejiang-Macao Trade and Economic Fair”, Mr Ho said: “ The SAR Government will grasp the opportunities provided by CEPA and continue to enhance business environment in order to provide quality service and opportunity for small and medium-size enterprises from local and abroad.” He said the SAR Government, in its second five-year term, would closely follow President Hu Jintao’s direction to continue the implementation of the “One Country Two Systems” policy and enhance its administration, to speed up the reforms in government administration and the law, to improve the well being of the residents, and to forge a society with quality. The co-operation between Macao and Zhejiang had entered a new period with the implementation of CEPA and the Individual Visit Scheme. In addition, the trade and economic fair that opened today would further amplified the effect of this relation, he said. “I anticipate that Macao could capitalise on its advantage and carry out its bridging role to complement the development of the Zhejiang province,” Mr Ho said. The Secretary of the Zhejiang Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Mr Xi Jinping said in his speech that Macao was already an important platform for economic cooperation and trade between the Mainland and Portuguese-speaking countries, and also served as a gateway for Zhejiang enterprises to “go international” and to attract foreign investment to Zhejiang. Mr Xi said he hoped to further promote multi-level cooperation between the two sides, especially in the service sector. Agreements for seven cooperation projects, valued at two billion five hundred million Renminbi, were signed at the ceremony. Foreign investment in these projects totaled one billion Renminbi.