Macao’s economic and financial authorities have been forging ahead in stages on work relating to the city’s involvement in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (Greater Bay Area).
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday (20 February), the Secretary for Economy and Finance, Mr Leong Vai Tac, said some tasks that required cross-departmental effort within the Government had also been initiated.
The Secretary noted approximately 300 of the tasks mentioned in the Central Government’s outline development plan for the Greater Bay Area had relevance for Macao. Approximately 70 of those 300 tasks related to matters which would fall under the supervision of Macao’s economic and financial authorities.
To coordinate Macao’s Greater Bay Area effort, the economic and financial authorities had formed an internal group in 2018. Its purpose was to stipulate and implement quarterly goals that would serve toward achieving policy objectives on the Greater Bay Area as defined annually.
In addition, Secretary Leong said the Greater Bay Area cities would need to explore jointly an innovative administrative mechanism. This would work to deliver breakthroughs on various issues, such as the regulatory and legal frameworks to be adopted in order for the Greater Bay Area partners – nine Guangdong cities, Hong Kong and Macao – to be able to work together.
He also mentioned that the Greater Bay Area initiative went beyond just government-to-government relations and business cooperation; it was also about how to enhance the overall well-being of the people living in the Greater Bay Area, and to ensure the public had a sense of benefiting from the development of the city-cluster initiative.
According to the outline development plan, the nine Guangdong cities and the two Special Administrative Regions would make use of their respective and complementary advantages, in order to realise the goal of creating an internationally-recognised oceanside conurbation ranked as first class in terms of its living, working and travelling conditions, Mr Leong noted.