The Chief Executive, Mr Chui Sai On, delivers a speech at the opening ceremony of the 2018/2019 Judicial Year.
The Chief Executive, Mr Chui Sai On, today pledged the Government’s full support in enhancing operations of the city’s judicial system, in a bid to advance the efficiency of the judiciary and of the city’s prosecutors.
Speaking at the ceremony marking the start of the 2018/2019 Judicial Year, Mr Chui said the Government would strive to optimise Macao’s legal system according to specific needs of the judicial system.
An example of the Government’s support was an amendment to the Judicial Organisation Framework Law – based on opinions gathered from the judiciary – which had been submitted for readings at the Legislative Assembly.
Mr Chui stressed in his speech that the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) courts and the Public Prosecutions Office were respectively vested – by the Basic Law – with the ability to exercise their various powers independently and free from any interference.
Since the establishment of the Macao SAR, judicial institutions had fully adhered to the Basic Law in exercising their powers, ensuring fairness and impartiality in the dispensation of justice. Their efforts had been widely recognised in the community, Mr Chui added.
In his speech, the Chief Executive said the Government had, as always, paid great attention to training a greater number of judicial professionals and building more facilities to cope with development of the judicial system.
Mr Chui noted eight current judges and five current public prosecutors had started their respective careers either within Macao’s judiciary or its prosecutorial system. The general view was that this had helped to ease to some degree the pressure related to a shortage of such professionals.
The Chief Executive pledged the Government would strive to ensure – when formulating next year overall planning of the city’s new urban reclamation areas – that conditions could be created whereby dedicated infrastructure to support judicial institutions might be possible.
The President of the Court of Final Appeal, Mr Sam Hou Fai; the Public Prosecutor-General, Mr Ip Son Sang; and the President of the Macau Lawyers Association, Mr Jorge Neto Valente, each gave a speech during today’s ceremony.
Approximately 300 officials attended the event, including: the President of the Legislative Assembly, Mr Ho Iat Seng; the Secretary for Administration and Justice, Ms Chan Hoi Fan; the President of the Independent Committee for the Nomination of Judges, Mr Lau Cheok Va; representatives respectively of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Macao SAR, and the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China in the Macao SAR; principal officials of the Macao SAR; members of the Executive Council; officials of judicial authorities; members of the Legislative Assembly; and other officials of the Macao SAR.
