The Government plans to develop Macao as a training hub and testing ground for tourism education, as a strategy to integrate the city further in the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
The initiative was disclosed today by the Chief Executive, Mr Chui Sai On, during a question-and-answer session at the Legislative Assembly.
The Government was confident of Macao’s capacity to provide quality training for tourism professionals; noting the city has a qualification-issuing tourism institution and world-class tourism facilities, including for leisure and entertainment, hotel and retail services, said Mr Chui.
Macao institutions offering tourism studies would reserve a quota of places for students from the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, in order to support the tourism development of those places.
The initiative of a city cluster in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area was outlined by Premier Li Keqiang in his latest government work report.
The Government’s proposal on transforming Macao to be a tourism-training hub was one of the results of discussions with ministries and committee of the Central Government, and with Shenzhen and Jiangmen authorities, said Mr Chui.
For Macao to become a major component city of the Greater Bay Area would help the city further develop its people-to-people exchanges with the mainland; provide further development opportunities for local young people; and foster the development of specialised financial services, said Mr Chui.
During his comments today at the Legislative Assembly, Mr Chui stated Macao was to host a high-level forum on the country’s Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road (collectively known as the “Belt and Road” initiative).
Hosting such an event in Macao is to promote further awareness and participation at community level regarding the national initiative. Such contribution is part of the city’s strategic development programme to ensure sustainability and further economic diversification, he said.
Highlights of Macao’s contribution to the “Belt and Road” initiative included:
- advancing exchanges on economic and trade issues, and promoting orderly capital flows between Portuguese-speaking countries and countries and places covered in the “Belt and Road” initiative;
- pressing ahead with the city’s development goals in transforming Macao as a commercial and trade cooperation service platform between China and Portuguese-speaking countries, while also making contributions to the “Belt and Road”;
- fostering the establishment in Macao of the headquarters of the China-Portuguese-speaking Countries Cooperation and Development Fund;
- pushing forward the development of Macao’s specialised financial services;
- enhancing the role of Macao’s overseas Chinese in the boosting of people-to-people exchanges, which is one of the major goals of the “Belt and Road” initiative.
In addition, the Government had already set up a body called the Working Committee for the Development of the “Belt and Road” Initiative, in order to coordinate the city’s participation in the national initiative. The objectives of the Working Committee included the formulation of the city’s master plan for its contribution to the “Belt and Road” initiative, and the monitoring of the master plan’s implementation; and to link the country’s 13th Five-Year Plan with Macao’s first Five-Year Development Plan.
Regarding the development of specialised financial services in Macao, Mr Chui said the Government had set up a dedicated task force to optimise the regulatory framework for such services, including the revision of laws, in order to encourage development of the financial leasing sector; and to simplify administrative procedures in order to attract a greater number of financial professionals to the city.
The Secretary for Economy and Finance, Mr Leong Vai Tac, had contacted a number of mainland enterprises and also mainland cities with a developed financial sector, and some of them expressed their willingness for closer cooperation with Macao, added Mr Chui.