Chief Executive Sam Hou Fai said yesterday that he expects the growth of Macau’s tech industry to inject new impetus into the city’s economic development and to create high-quality employment opportunities while underlining that the tech industry will become an important chapter in Macau’s future development.
Sam made the remarks in a speech while chairing this year’s first plenary meeting of the government-appointed Science and Technology Council at the Services Platform Complex for Commercial and Trade Cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries (aka Forum Macao Complex), located near Macau Tower.
The meeting, which was held behind closed doors, was open to the media at the start when Sam made his opening speech.
The chief executive noted in his speech that with the profound changes in the international landscape, achieving self-reliance and strength in science and technology has become a core strategic goal in the nation’s development. Macau must, by seizing the “historic” opportunities arising from the global technological revolution and the development of the digital economy, build an innovation-driven industrial system and accelerate the pace of its urban transformation and upgrading, with the aim of contributing its specific strengths to the realisation of the nation’s strategic goals in science and technology, he said.
Sam noted that during his inspection visit to Macau at the end of last year, President Xi Jinping highly commended the scientific research work conducted by local higher education institutions and encouraged scientific researchers to “maintain their good work, reach new heights, and achieve even more outstanding results”. Xi also encouraged Macau to leverage its unique resource advantages to play a distinctive role in the nation’s scientific and technological development, becoming a bridge and window for telling the good story of China’s scientific and technological development to the global community, the chief executive said, adding that Macau must drive the development of its scientific and technological innovation in compliance with the important directions outlined by Xi.
Sam underlined that the local government is committed to uniting and leading all sectors of Macau’s civil society to earnestly implement the spirit of Xi’s important speeches delivered during his inspection visit, striving to promote the city’s appropriate economic diversification, pledging that his government will leverage Macau’s own strengths and resource endowments, positioning itself precisely, focusing on priority tasks, refining industrial development planning, and intensifying policy support and capital investment, with the aim of cultivating new industries with international competitiveness while targeting key sectors to scale up the development of distinctive industries.
As high-tech is one of the four new key industries listed by the local government’s 1+4 appropriate economic diversification plan, Sam said, his government is stepping up its efforts to continuously improve its system and mechanism for promoting scientific and technological innovation, optimise the development environment for scientific and technological innovation, and leverage Macau’s connectivity advantages, with the aim of fostering the growth of the city’s high-tech industry.
The local government’s 1+4 model aims to consolidate and diversify the development of the city’s tourism and leisure industry, i.e., the “1” element, while putting special emphasis on promoting the development of four new key industries, i.e., the “4” element, namely 1) big health mainly driven by traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), 2) modern finance, 3) high-tech, and 4) MICE and commerce as well as culture and sport.
In his speech, Sam said that his government is deeply aware that the growth of Macau’s tech industry will inject new impetus into the city’s economic development, create high-quality jobs, and provide a stage for young local people to pursue and realise their dreams and aspirations. Consequently, he said, the tech industry will become an important chapter in Macau’s future development.
Sam noted that his 2025 Policy Address, which he delivered in April, outlines the government’s commitment to strengthening its support and investment in diversifying the city’s industries, where the government will cultivate new industries with international competitiveness, make better use of non-gaming investments to support the city’s appropriate economic diversification, create a mechanism for identifying investment projects aligned with Macau’s long-term development, and accelerate the completion of its ongoing study on the feasibility of setting up new public funds aiming to promote the development of nascent industries and to transform scientific research achievements into the industries’ development.
Members of the government-appointed Science and Technology Council, comprising government officials as well as experts, scholars and community leaders from the city’s science and technology sectors, attend yesterday’s meeting chaired by Chief Executive Sam Hou Fai at the Forum Macao Complex. – Photo: Tony Wong
Chief Executive Sam Hou Fai addresses the Science and Technology Council’s first 2025 plenary meeting at the Forum Macao Complex yesterday. – Photo: GCS
