Chief Executive, Mr Chui Sai On, meets the press.
The Government would push ahead with adequate diversification of the economy in time of consolidation, maintaining the development process of the small- and medium-sized enterprises and ensuring the stability of job market. This is according to Chief Executive, Mr Chui Sai On, who told the press today as he wrapped up his three-day visit to Beijing for the commemorative events marking the 70th anniversary of victory of the Chinese people’s war of resistance against Japanese aggression and world anti-Fascist war. He said the grand parade held at 3 September was exciting and the commemorative events showed the country’s policy direction of peace loving and honour for martyrs. Mr Chui revealed the Government would roll out a campaign to promote tourism of Macao to attract more tourists, and expecting number of visitors would rise from the base of 31.5 million yearly. The Government’s strategies to adequate diversify the economy include more involvement in the country’s Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road initiatives, and more co-operation with different regions. On retrenchment measures, Mr Chui re-iterated they aimed at cutting unnecessary internal spending of government departments, without affecting the work to better people’s livelihood, social welfare and the expenditure on social security. He said the Government had stable financial reserves and was confident in achieving a fiscal balance or surplus this year; while it would closely monitor the economic environment, especially revenue in September, to determine the necessity of launching further measures to control public expenditure.