Chief Executive Sam Hou Fai, on the final leg of his four-nation European tour, visited the Belgian capital of Brussels and met yesterday with Belgian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Employment, Economy and Agriculture David Clarinval, the Macau Government Information Bureau (GCS) said in a statement today.
According to the statement, Sam and Clarinval exchanged views on deepening cooperation between Macau and Belgium in multiple fields such as economic and trade matters, aviation and logistics, and biomedicine.
Sam thanked the Belgian Federal Government for its support regarding the visit by the Macao Special Administrative Region (MSAR) Government delegation. During yesterday’s meeting, the Sam gave a briefing on Macau’s latest developments. Since its return to the motherland, Macau has comprehensively and accurately implemented the principles of “One Country, Two Systems”, “Macao people governing Macao”, and a high degree of autonomy, he said.
On this basis, Sam noted, the economy has continuously developed, civil society has remained harmonious and stable, and Chinese and Western cultures have deeply integrated. The city's vitality and inclusive spirit are widely recognised internationally, Sam said. He invited Clarinval to visit Macau to experience the city’s harmonious atmosphere and the vitality of its development.
Sam said that, based on its positioning as “One Centre, One Platform, and One Base”*, the MSAR is actively leveraging its advantages of internal and external connectivity, striving to build itself into an important bridgehead for China’s high-level opening up, and a vital window for exchange and mutual learning between the Chinese and Western civilisations.
This visit aimed to consolidate and further develop the friendly and cooperative relations between Macau and Belgium, Sam said. He mentioned that Macau’s air cargo market has been fully opened up, and the city is systematically creating an international air transport hub on the west bank of the Pearl River. This brings new opportunities to strengthen aviation and logistics cooperation between Macao and Belgium, allowing the two sides to co-develop freight routes connecting Macao and Europe, Sam said.
Sam noted that Belgium possesses world-leading enterprises in food processing, biomedicine, and other sectors. These enterprises could make good use of the Macau platform in order to promote enhanced long-term cooperation among enterprises from the Chinese mainland, Macau and Belgium, with the aim of achieving industrial alignment and joint development for reciprocal benefit.
Clarinval said that Belgium attaches great importance to its relations with Macao, and fully acknowledges the social stability and prosperity achieved through Macau’s successful implementation of the “One Country, Two Systems” principle.
Clarinval pointed out, according to the statement, that Belgian enterprises have a global footprint and possess outstanding capabilities in fields such as aviation and logistics, food processing, and biomedicine. He said that they have long maintained good economic and trade exchanges with enterprises both in the Chinese mainland and in the MSAR. Belgium and Macau should continuously deepen their economic and trade relations and promote the realisation of further cooperative projects, he said.
According to the statement, Clarinval said he was pleased to see Macau actively participating in international-cooperation affairs. He also said that Belgium supports Macau in fully playing its role as a platform to deepen cooperation and alignment with European Union countries in areas such as economic and trade matters, culture and education.
Belgium maintains an open attitude and is willing to explore and expand exchanges and cooperation with Macau in any field, while also encouraging Belgian enterprises to expand their businesses through the Macau platform, Clarinval said.
He congratulated Sam, according to the statement, on the positive outcomes achieved during his current visit to four European countries, and looked forward to visiting Macau in the future to see what he described as a fascinating, internationalised city.
Other officials attending yesterday’s meeting included the Chinese Ambassador to Belgium Fei Shengchao; the chief-of-office of the Chief Executive’s Office Chan Kak; the director of the Macao Economic and Trade Office to the European Union in Brussels, Lúcia Abrantes dos Santos; and the counsellor for European and International Affairs in the Cabinet of Belgium’s Minister of Employment, Economy and Agriculture, Sybille Mazay.
*The “One Centre, One Platform, One Base” is a strategic positioning framework that encapsulates the goals the MSAR aims to develop:
One Centre: A world centre of tourism and leisure.
One Platform: A commercial and trade cooperation service platform between China and Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking countries.
One Base: An exchange and cooperation base with Chinese culture as the mainstream, with diverse cultures co-existing. – MPD
Translation provided by GCS; minor edits and a footnote added by the Post.
Caption: Chief Executive Sam Hou Fai (left) shakes hands with Belgium’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Employment, Economy and Agriculture David Clarinval in Brussels yesterday. – Photo: GCS
