The Secretary for Economy and Finance, Mr Tam Pak Yuen, said today Macao would continuously participate in Pan-Pearl River Delta (PPRD) regional co-operation, especially in regional tourism to boost mutual benefits. With great support from brotherhood provinces and regions, Macao's economy had steadily grown despite unfavourable global economic conditions, Mr Tam said in his keynote address at the opening ceremony of the 8th Pan-Pearl River Delta Regional Co-operation and Development Forum being held in Haikou, Hainan, from 28-30 November. He said Macao was dedicated to diversifying the economy by speeding up development on leisure tourism, exhibitions, retailing, creative culture, traditional Chinese medicine, and acting as a business service platform for China and the Portuguese-speaking countries. Meanwhile, the Macao Government would pragmatically support the promotion of "multi-destination travel" – travelling with different stopovers in the PPRD region to overseas markets, he said. At the end of the ceremony, Mr Tam visited the Macao Pavilion before meeting with the leaders from Hainan and Yunnan provinces, to exchange views on tourism and business and trading co-operation. During the meetings with the Deputy Governor of Hainan Province, Mr Tan Li and the Governor of Yunnan Province, Mr Li Jiheng, respectively, Mr Tam introduced Macao's latest economic development and expressed that Macao would strengthen tourism co-operation with the two provinces. The Governor of Yunnan Province, Mr Li said that Macao is a channel for Yunnan to access to the world: he said he expected to foster co-operation on exhibition, tourism and business and trade with Macao. The Deputy Governor of Hainan Province, Mr Tan said that Macao's tourism industry has reached international level and Hainan will take Macao's development experience as a reference. A memorandum was signed between Macao and Hainan tourism departments to further promote tourism co-operation by setting up a communication mechanism. Mr Tam will attend the Leader Joint Conference to be held in Sanya on 1 December before returning to Macao
