Chief Executive, Edmund Ho received a 17-member-delegation of the European Parliament on 5th November at the government Guest House, Santa Sancha, introducing them the post-handover situation of the Macau SAR.
The delegation headed by Per Gahrton visited Hong Kong and Macau over the weekend on the last leg of a 10-day tour of the People's Republic of China.
Referring to the economy of Macau, Edmund Ho explained that, being a small city with a total population of 500,000 and limited resources, certain difficulties in Macau's economic development were "inevitable", but he quickly added that Macau's advantages, such as lower labour cost and young population with high education would enable the territory to play its complementary role in the development of neighbouring regions.
When talking about the future influence brought by China's entry to the WTO, Edmund Ho said that China's membership in the WTO may not bring major benifits to the SAR, but it would certainly provide opportunities for some businessmen in Macau, which is one of the founding members of the WTO.
Edmund Ho told the Euro MPs that the SAR government had commissioned a consultant company to study on the development of gaming business, which is a major industry in the SAR.
He said new policies would be put forward to use the gambling revenue to boost the development of Information Technology (I. T. ) and other industries so as to create more job opportunities, adding: "these will lead to a sound and diversified economic development of the SAR."
Regarding the judiciary system, Edmund Ho pointed out great efforts had been made to promote the utilize of Chinese language in the legal and judicial aspects, and to guarantee the quality of the judiciary system as well.
He also said outdated laws had be revised by the Legislative Assembly, inadequate articles of the three law codes which came into effect before handover, were either frozen or amended.
The European Parliament delegation also paid a visit to the Legislative Assembly, where they had talks with the President of the Assembly, Susana Chou.
Macau maintains a trade and cooperation agreement with the 15-nation European Union.
