A group photograph of the leading officials attending the 2021 Pan-Pearl River Delta Regional Cooperation Chief Executive Joint Conference held at Chengdu city, Sichuan Province.
The Chief Executive, Mr Ho Iat Seng, today said Macao would join hands with partners in the Pan-Pearl River Delta (PPRD) region to strengthen linkage of, and involvement in, major national strategies, in a bid to promote mutual high-level development.
The Chief Executive shared his insights in a speech delivered at the 2021 Pan-Pearl River Delta Regional Cooperation Chief Executive Joint Conference, held in Chengdu city, in Sichuan Province. The Joint Conference took as its theme: deepen the opening up and cooperation of PPRD region and make joint efforts to build new development landscape.
Noting that the PPRD region had been included in the country’s 14th Five-Year Plan, the Chief Executive added that the inclusion represented a prominent task given by the Central Government to the region, and was an enormous opportunity to elevate intra-regional collaboration.
Mr Ho’s speech to the Joint Conference took as its topic “Jointly enjoy opportunities from the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle and foster linkage into major regional and national development strategies”. The speech had four points of understanding as outlined by the Chief Executive.
The first point shared by the Chief Executive with Joint Conference attendees was the need to step up connections between key initiatives within the PPRD region, giving full play to the leading role of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and jointly contributing to the success of the Guangdong-Macao In-depth Cooperation Zone. Mr Ho mentioned Macao would study thoroughly the important instructions from President Xi Jinping regarding development of Hengqin island by Macao and Zhuhai. Greater effort would be made to explore concrete policies targeted for the Cooperation Zone. Currently, Macao and Guangdong were accelerating innovative development targeted for the Cooperation Zone, in relation to: boundary crossing matters; tax policies; management of financial services; market access; regulatory system issues; and legal affairs. Those innovative policies aimed to develop the Cooperation Zone in alignment with international standards, while also integrating it with the economy of Macao, and would be conducive to building the Cooperation Zone into a new paradigm for the “One country, two systems” principle.
The second point explained by the Chief Executive was the need to promote industrial integration, in order to construct coordinated and modern industrial and innovative systems within the PPRD region. Mr Ho gave more details on how Macao planned to forge ahead regarding cooperation in financial services, traditional Chinese medicine, science and technological development, as well as in the MICE industries and the cultural and sport sector, via the historic opportunities presented jointly by the Greater Bay Area initiative and the Cooperation Zone in Hengqin.
The third point of understanding shared by Mr Ho was about giving full play to Macao’s function as a commercial and trade cooperationservice platform between China and Portuguese-speaking countries (the “Platform” policy), in order to help partners in the PPRD region to explore opportunities in those countries. The upcoming Extraordinary Ministerial Conference of the Forum for Economic and Trade Co-operation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries would be held in Macao in October, Mr Ho said. Greater effort would be made to tie advantages generated by the Greater Bay Area initiative and those arising from Macao’s “Platform” policy to the strengths of the city’s strategic position as a multicultural exchange and cooperation base with an emphasis on Chinese culture.
The fourth point raised by Mr Ho was to deepen patriotism in Macao, in order to foster all-round integration with the country. Taking part in the nation’s poverty-alleviation effort would help reinforce the sense of patriotism felt by the Macao public, and was a meaningful way for locals to strengthen their loyalty to the country and to Macao, said Mr Ho. Macao had been taking part in a number of rural revitalisation projects put forward by the country, including in Xiushui County in Jiujiang Prefecture, Jiangxi Province.
In his speech, Mr Ho said the PPRD region would see even greater and brighter cooperation prospects, thanks to the endeavour of places within it. This would contribute to the high-quality development sought under the country’s 14th Five-Year Plan, accelerating the "dual circulation" development pattern centred on the domestic economy, and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, added Mr Ho.
The Chief Executive is leading a delegation from the Macao Special Administrative Region on a six-day trip with stops respectively in Chengdu city in Sichuan Province, and in Xi’an city in Shaanxi Province.
