Chief Executive Sam Hou Fai has pledged that his government will align the Macau Special Administrative Region’s (MSAR) third Five-Year Plan with Guangdong Province’s 15th Five-Year Plan, elevating Guangdong-Macau cooperation to higher levels, and together making greater contributions to Chinese modernisation and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
Sam made the remarks while delivering a speech during the 2026 Spring Festival Banquet of Guangdong Province (Macao) on Friday.
The banquet, held at the Macau Tower Convention and Entertainment Centre, was organised by the Guangzhou-based Council for the Promotion of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Cooperation.
In his speech on Friday, Sam noted that the nation’s 15th Five-Year Plan, which was passed by the National People’s Congress (NPC) in Beijing earlier this month, draws a grand blueprint for the country’s development over the next five years. The 15th Five-Year Plan period, Sam noted, represents a crucial period for the country to lay a solid foundation necessary to basically achieve socialist modernisation.
The plan, officially known as 15th Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development, covers the period between 2026 and 2030.
The 15th Five-Year Plan, Sam said, also provides greater opportunities and creates a broader stage for further deepening Guangdong-Macau cooperation, pledging that Macau will work together with Guangdong Province to earnestly implement the plans outlined by the nation’s 15th Five-Year Plan concerning Guangdong and Macau, and to ensure effective alignment and coordination between the MSAR’s third five-year socioeconomic development plan and Guangdong Province’s 15th Five-Year Plan.
The MSAR government is scheduled to launch a public consultation next month to gather opinions and suggestions from Macau’s civil society concerning its drafting of Macau’s third five-year socioeconomic development plan.
Sam also noted that last year marked the concluding year of the nation’s 14th Five-Year Plan, during which the country secured historic achievements in its socioeconomic development. The Chinese mainland’s gross domestic product (GDP) surpassed the 140 trillion yuan benchmark last year, Sam noted, adding that Guangdong Province, as an economic powerhouse in the country, saw its GDP exceed 14 trillion yuan, ranking first in the nation for 37 consecutive years.
The Chinese mainland’s GDP grew by 5.0 percent to 140.19 trillion yuan in 2025, while Guangdong’s economic output rose by 3.9 percent to 14.58 trillion yuan, according to official statistics.
Sam underlined that over the past year, under the central government’s guidance and support and with the joint efforts of Guangdong and Macau, cooperation between the two sides has yielded fruitful results. Last year, Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau jointly hosted the National Games for the first time, while the 2025 Guangdong-Macau Cooperation Joint Conference was successfully held, Sam noted, pointing out that he visited all the nine Guangdong cities of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) on separate occasions last year.
The 11-member GBA consists of nine prefecture-level cities in Guangdong Province and the nation’s two special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau.
The province comprises a total of 21 prefecture-level cities.
Sam noted that Macau recorded 40.07 million visitor arrivals last year, the highest annual number on record, with 17.10 million of them from Guangdong Province, accounting for 42.7 percent of the total, and representing a year-on-year increase of 30.4 percent.
According to official statistics, Macau’s total number of visitor arrivals in 2025 rose 14.7 percent from the previous year. Macau recorded 29.02 million visitor arrivals from the Chinese mainland in 2025, accounting for 72.4 percent of the total, and representing a year-on-year growth of 18.5 percent.
Sam outlines Hengqin’s development achievements
Moreover, Sam also underlined that new sequential achievements have been made in the development of the Guangdong-Macao In-Depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin, with its GDP amounting to 54.7 billion yuan in 2025, while its retail sales of consumer goods totalled 5.7 billion yuan, up 20.3 percent year-on-year.
The 106-square-kilometre Hengqin island in Zhuhai City is officially known as Guangdong-Macao In-Depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin, after the zone was inaugurated in September 2021.
The neighbouring city of Zhuhai is one of the nine Guangdong GBA cities.
According to official statistics, Zhuhai’s GDP grew by 2.7 percent to 457.3 billion yuan in 2025, while Hengqin’s GDP rose by 2.1 percent to 54.7 billion yuan.
Sam said that there were 7,681 Macau-invested enterprises in Hengqin in 2025, which he said indicated a significant increase in the level of Macau-Hengqin integration.
Sam also underlined that new progress has been made in the GBA’s development, while outstanding achievements have been made in Guangdong-Macau cooperation in various key areas such as economy, finance, sci-tech, people’s daily lives, education, healthcare, and social security.
Sam noted that this year marks the start of the nation’s 15th Five-Year Plan, Guangdong Province’s 15th Five-Year Plan, and the MSAR’s third five-year socioeconomic development plan, pledging that his government will proactively align with the nation’s development strategy and seize development opportunities with the aim of promoting deeper and more substantive Guangdong-Macau cooperation and better serving the nation’s overall development.
Sam said that he expects Guangdong Province to continue supporting Macau-Hengqin cooperation while further strengthening its efforts to develop Hengqin and bringing its high-quality investment projects into Hengqin.
Sam also said he expects the province to launch a batch of landmark and influential construction and investment projects in Hengqin with the aim of injecting fresh and greater impetus into Macau-Hengqin integrated development and the GBA’s market integration.
Also delivering a speech, Wang Xi, a member of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Guangdong Provincial Committee and head of the United Front Work Department of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee, pledged that the province will advance deep alignment and coordination between its 15th Five-Year Plan and Macau’s third Five-Year Plan, while accelerating Hengqin’s ongoing second-phase development.
In addition to Sam, the banquet was attended by other dignitaries including Edmund Ho Hau Wah, the MSAR’s first chief executive and now a vice-chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), Central People’s Government Liaison Office in the MSAR Deputy Director Lyu Yuyin, Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Macau Garrison Commissar Lin Qinghua, Foreign Ministry Deputy Commissioner Cheng Lei, Macau Legislative Assembly (AL) President André Cheong Weng Chon, as well as other senior officials from Guangdong Province.
Chief Executive Sam Hou Fai addresses Friday’s Spring Festival Banquet of Guangdong Province (Macao) at Macau Tower. – Photo: GCS
