The Macau government held a meeting yesterday to brief association representatives on Macau’s 3rd Five-Year Plan regarding Macau’s participation in Hengqin’s development, during which Secretary for Economy and Finance Dora Ng Wai Han underlined the local government’s commitment to firmly grasping the opportunities presented by Hengqin’s development so as to achieve Macau’s leapfrog development.
The meeting, attended by about 60 association representatives, was held at the Service Platform Complex for Commercial and Trade Cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries (aka Forum Macao Complex) in Sai Van.
Yesterday’s meeting came after the Macau government had held five meetings to brief association representatives about the 3rd Five-Year Plan since late last month. These five meetings respectively focused on the portfolios of Macau’s five policy secretaries.
The 106-square-kilometre Hengqin island in Zhuhai City has been officially known as the Guangdong-Macao In-Depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin since its inauguration in September 2021. The adjacent island is three times the size of the Macao Special Administrative Region (MSAR).
The zone’s governance consists of a management committee and an executive committee.
The management committee is the zone’s top decision-making body run under a dual-director system, jointly led by the governor of Guangdong Province and the chief executive of the MSAR. The zone’s executive committee is the body tasked with the zone’s daily functioning and execution of tasks.
There are nine bureaus administered under the zone’s executive committee.
Dora Ng heads the zone’s executive committee, which has five deputy directors comprising three officials from Guangdong and two officials from Macau.
In addition to Ng, yesterday’s meeting was also attended by Secretary for Administration and Justice Wong Sio Chak, the five deputy directors of the zone’s executive committee – Nie Xinping, Fu Yongge, Li Chong, Cao Jinfeng, and Cheong Kok Kei – and Hengqin Administration and Legal Bureau Director Carmen Maria Chung. Chung is a civil servant posted by the Macau government to Hengqin.
Wong is the executive deputy director of the zone’s management committee, which has five deputy directors comprising three officials from Guangdong and two officials from Macau.
Yesterday’s meeting was open to the media when Ng delivered her opening speech and Li Chong, one of the five deputy directors of the zone’s executive committee, gave a presentation on the 3rd Five-Year Plan regarding Macau’s participation in Hengqin’s development. Afterwards, the meeting was held behind closed doors while attendees gave their opinions and officials answered their questions.
The Macau government published the final version of the 3rd Five-Year Plan last month.
The MSAR’s 3rd Five-Year Plan, officially known as the 3rd Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development, covers the period between 2026 and 2030.
Delivering her speech, Ng noted that the establishment of the In-Depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin and its development is a major decision personally planned, deployed, and promoted by President Xi Jinping. From the outset, the original intent to develop Hengqin has been closely centred on promoting Macau’s appropriate economic diversification and making it more convenient for Macau residents to work and live in Hengqin, she underlined.
Critical period for Macau’s transformation
Ng stressed that the next five years represent a critical period for Macau’s transformation and breakthrough. To achieve leapfrog development, participate more deeply in the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), and better integrate into the nation’s overall development, Macau must firmly grasp the new strategic positioning of “Macau + Hengqin” and fully capitalise on the opportunities presented by Hengqin’s development, she said.
Ng noted that the nation’s 15th Five-Year Plan outlines Macau-Hengqin integrated development, marking the first time a national five-year plan has incorporated this initiative, serving as a major measure by the central authorities to support Macau’s long-term development from a top-level design perspective.
Ng noted that to thoroughly implement the spirit of Xi’s important instructions concerning Hengqin’s development while closely aligning with the nation’s 15th Five-Year Plan, Macau’s 3rd Five-Year Plan has a dedicated section for Hengqin’s development, outlining systematic and comprehensive planning for Hengqin’s development over the next five years across three major dimensions: deepening the integrated development of “Macau + Hengqin”, promoting Macau-Hengqin industrial synergy, and fostering deep integration of residents’ daily life matters between the two places.
Ng noted that Macau’s 3rd Five-Year Plan sets a goal for reaching a combined value added of 65 percent or more of Hengqin’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2030 from cultural tourism, MICE, commerce, traditional Chinese medicine and big health, modern finance, and sci-tech research and high-end manufacturing.
Ng also noted that the 3rd Five-Year Plan sets various other goals including: improving Hengqin’s public services and social security systems, achieving sustained growth in the number of Macau residents and enterprises in Hengqin, and achieving fresh results in promoting Macau’s appropriate economic diversification.
About 60 association representatives attend yesterday’s meeting about Macau’s 3rd Five-Year Plan regarding its participation in Hengqin’s development at the Forum Macao Complex near Macau Tower. – Photo: GCS
